Leave a CommentRacially "targeting" predatory subprime loans? the naacp and baltimore suits
Cross-posted from Point of Law.
Says the NAACP complaint: “In 2004, African-American homeowners who received subprime mortgage loans from Defendants were over 30% more likely to be issued a higher-rate loan than Caucasian borrowers with the same qualifications.” (¶ 1.) Thus, it concludes, the disparity “result[s] from a systematic and predatory targeting of African-Americans.” (¶ 6.)
Similarly, Baltimore’s suit argues that Wells Fargo is more likely to foreclose in African-American neighborhoods—and that suit does not even attempt to adjust for similar qualifications or finances, just alleging racial disparity.
Of course, there is a difference between being targeted for a subprime mortgage loan and accepting a subprime mortgage loan. And I don’t believe that African-American homeowners were targeted for subprime mortgage loans because they were African-American. They were targeted because they were homeowners.
Between 2001 and 2005, I was a law-firm associate, high-income, making multiples of what I make today at a thinktank. And, like I am today, I was also white. And the minute my adjustable-rate mortgage was registered in the title books in 2001, I got several solicitations a week in the mail from fly-by-night mortgage brokers offering to refinance my mortgage with ludicrous financial products. (And when I made the mistake of investigating on-line options for switching to a fixed-rate mortgage in 2004, I also got several e-mails a day and phone-calls a month on the same basis to the point that I switched e-mail providers.)
Somehow, I resisted refinancing with a mortgage that was not favorable to me in the long run—I took a 5.25% fixed-rate instead. But I sure was targeted with subprime opportunities, especially as the real-estate prices in my neighborhood skyrocketed about 10% a year. And if, with my skin-color, income, education-level, and impeccable credit-score, I was targeted, so was every homeowner and their grandmother.
To the extent a statistical study says minorities were, ceteris paribus, more likely to receive unfavorable mortgages than whites, the study reflects a specification error, perhaps in failing to account for different levels of consumer education. Another possibility: there is a lot of state-by-state regulation of the mortgage industry. Are subprime mortgages more likely in states with high minority populations, for example? Are subprime mortgage brokers more likely to be aggressive in urban areas in states on the coasts where real estate prices were increasing faster than average, and those states correspond to states with high minority populations?
Note that the CRL study that has been driving the debate and highlighted in the NAACP suit finds that for many types of loans, whites were “disadvantaged” relative to Hispanics, which would seem to count against a racial explanation (unless one believes that bankers hold a racial animus against whites and towards Hispanics) and more towards a geographic explanation.
Note also the irony that these same defendants were accused of failing to offer loans to African-Americans just a few years ago. (See also Apr. 1.)
Finally, note that the NAACP complaint is legally frivolous in at least one respect because of the lack of standing in a federal court. Domino’s Pizza, Inc. v. McDonald, 546 U.S. 470 (2006) (no § 1981 standing for third parties). (Baltimore brings no § 1981 claim.) Fair Housing Act standing is questionable, too, given the lack of allegation of injury to NAACP in particular, though that could be fairly easily rectified by an amended complaint, especially in the Ninth Circuit. Cf. Spann v. Colonial Vill., Inc., 899 F.2d 24 (D.C. Cir. 1990) (“[a]n organization cannot, of course, manufacture the injury necessary to maintain a suit from its expenditure of resources on that very suit”) (R. Bader Ginsburg, J.); Fair Housing of Marin v. Combs, 285 F.3d 899, 902 (9th Cir. 2002). N.B. that there is an amended version of the NAACP complaint that may already fix these issues. NAACP v. Ameriquest Mortgage Co., No. 8:07-cv-00794-AG-AN (C.D. Cal.). For some reason, this is not available on PACER, so I haven’t seen it.
Related: Jan. 8 (Krauss on Baltimore suit); Apr. 25 (me on third-party liability for subprime lending).
(Disclosure: I own less than ,000 in stock in Citigroup, one of the defendants in the case.) (Source: Overlawyered)
A great question for a nurse practitioner
“Hi There – Just stumbled on your site. I have one question, as I’m trying to decide if pursuing family practitioning is for me. How did you know you wanted to be a practitioner? A little background – I am a recent grad of a direct-entry MSN program, so I already hold a general MSN. I got my RN license over the summer and have been working on an oncology floor. I love being a nurse. I hate floor nursing. I knew I would, but I value the experience I am getting, despite its many frustrations. Before pursuing my 2nd degree, I worked in management positions in a variety of unique settings, and I’m used to being in the driver’s position, so to speak. I’m a critical thinker and a natural leader (whether others like it or not! ). I see connections quickly and I like to get things done. In addition, I am vastly interested in a more holistic approach to nursing than floor nursing seems to offer. And I feel somewhat stifled in my current position – a feeling I know will only intensify as time goes on. My interests are pain management, end-of-life care, family dynamic, and anything that is involved with helping educate and empower the underprivileged. That is so much wordier than I intended, and yet such a nutshell of my passions! I am knee deep in student loans from my first two degrees, and this makes me nervous about taking out more. But at the same time, I’m so knee deep that an investment in my earning potential may not be altogether worthless on my part. I am on the edge of applying to programs, and would love any insight you have into family practitioning and how you knew it was for you.I thought that this was such a great question that I had to post about it. I knew when I went into the nursing program as a RN that I would eventually come out as a nurse practitioner. I always wanted to have the power to completely take care of patients myself. I also like to be in the driver’s seat and that goal oriented personality is helpful when making health care decisions.Patients pick up on whether you are confident or not and they also pick up on false bravado so it’s a fine line. I tossed around the idea of actually becoming a doctor but knew that it was not feasible both in time and money so I started as a nurse. I will be going back for the DNP but not anytime soon! I need to recover first!Yes, the loans are crazy! I also have years to pay them back and I am using my adsense ads and Amazon store to help with that endeavor. I am now working in a rural setting and am applying for Federal loan forgiveness programs as we speak. If you are thinking about becoming a NP, I have found that Family is the way to go in order to be more marketable. You can always specialize later. Please do not stay stifled in a position that you are not happy in. Patients also suffer along with our families. The awesome thing about nursing is the versatility of it. I hope this helped you and good luck in your endeavors! (Source: The Nurse Practitioner’s Place)
Blast from the past: ‘the best article i’ve ever read on identity theft and what to do if and when it happens to you’
It appeared here on May 30, 2005, and follows.
……………….
No hysteria, no over?the?top pronouncements, simply a dispassionate analysis of the problem and sensible remedies.
Alina Tugend wrote the piece; it appeared in this past Saturday’s New York Times in the Personal Business section and is worth printing out and filing away “just in case.”
I certainly did just that.
Good news/bad news: the single most interesting statistic in the article was that 35% of all identity theft victims resolve their problems within an hour or less; 6%, however, spend more than 240 hours.
In case you’re too tired to bother with the math, that’s an average of an hour a day for eight months straight ? seven days a week.
Here’s the story.
Oh, No! My Identity’s Gone! Call the Insurer.
It’s hard not to be frightened by identity theft these days, no matter how diligent you are.
It seems as if tales of woe are everywhere: the stolen credit card, the compromised Social Security number, the lost wages.
It happened to Tony Coretto of Larchmont, N.Y., six years ago.
Someone used his name and Social Security number, supplied a different address and opened a checking account at Chase Manhattan Bank.
That person then wrote a bad check for ,500, and for years it haunted Mr. Coretto and his wife, Suzanne.
You bought a shredder a few years back to avoid such a nightmare and use it religiously on those annoying preapproved credit card solicitations that clog your mailbox.
You are aware of the e-mail schemes that are circulating and never provide personal information over the Internet, at least not on an unsecured Web site.
And each time a company asks for your Social Security number or your mother’s maiden name, you ask why and inquire how it will safeguard that information.
You swallow hard and give the information, the same way you let a waiter take your credit card away for approval.
Some things are just out of your control.
Then you hear about security breaches at companies like MCI, Bank of America and Time Warner.
And the scary statistic that almost 10 million people have been victims of identity thieves in the last year, according to the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
So you wonder, is this getting out of hand? What else can I do?
It may not come as a surprise that the insurance industry has found an eager market for a timely product: identity theft insurance.
Before you start enjoying warm and fuzzy feelings of security, know that such insurance does not cover the thousands of dollars that thieves may rack up using your good credit; in fact, consumers are usually responsible for a maximum of .
Rather, it is meant to reimburse, as much as possible, for the time and out-of-pocket expenses involved in purging the bad credit.
It can be bought either as part of a homeowner’s policy or as a stand-alone endorsement.
It’s free or cheap – usually no more than a year, depending on the policy.
And that generally covers up to ,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute (www.iii.org).
Indeed, if you have a homeowner’s policy, check with the insurance agent; you may already be covered and not know it.
Most policies reimburse for lost wages associated with taking time off to clear up the problem, phone bills, notary and legal fees, money spent reapplying for loans that may have been rejected because of bad credit, and even medical bills if the client can prove that the identity theft caused physical or psychological problems that required a doctor’s services.
That’s the catch; everything must be documented.
Such products had only limited availability in 1999, when Mr. Coretto did what he was told to do by his creditors: report the situation immediately to the three major credit agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.
Still, “for the next several months,” he recalled, “I was hounded by a collection agency and tried to get both Equifax and TransUnion to remove incorrect former addresses and former employment – not to mention the offending Chase revolving credit account I never had, as well as a phone bill for a number I had never had.”
Six years later, the exasperation was still in his voice.
It took contacting the Better Business Bureau, his lawyer and the office of Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York, to resolve the matter.
But the story was not over yet.
More than two years later, when he and his wife were preparing to refinance their mortgage, the bad credit still appeared on his credit reports, and he found that the Chase account had been transferred to another collection agency.
Mr. Coretto again contacted the three reporting agencies, and filed a consumer identity theft affidavit with all three.
After more frustrating hours spent on the phone and writing letters, he resolved the matter, for now at least.
In all, he estimates that he lost at least 40 working hours over a period of three years clearing up the mess.
Not every victim is plagued for years like Mr. Coretto.
Betsy Broder, who oversees the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft program, noted that 35 percent of all victims resolve their problems within an hour or less.
The bad news, however, is that 6 percent spend more than 240 hours.
If you’re caught in the web of identity theft and want to hand the whole problem over to someone else, some insurance companies offer what they call a restoration or resolution service.
They provide either a specialist who guides you through the credit maze, or someone who actually does the work, such as filing police reports and contacting credit agencies.
For example, Kroll Inc., a risk consultant company, offers restoration services and credit monitoring for .95 a month.
It also supplies an after-the-fact restoration service for a flat fee, which can range from a few hundred dollars to ,500, said Troy D. Allen, vice president for fraud solutions at Kroll.
Identity theft insurance should not be confused with credit monitoring services.
These online services offer, for to 0 annually, monthly e-mail alerts about new credit inquiries, account openings or other changes to your credit records, as well as frequent credit reports.
But Linda Foley, co-executive director for the Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org), says such services are at best unnecessary, and also give a false sense of security.
“They’re accurate only up to a point,” she said.
Many times companies do not report right away who has tried to open an account in your name, so nothing appears for months.
“If you don’t catch the fraud at the time of application, it doesn’t matter if you find out now or in a month,” Ms. Foley said.
Insurance, on the other hand, if it is low-cost or free and has good coverage, is not necessarily bad, Ms. Foley said.
In general, however, consumer experts are not big advocates of insurance.
They say that most people can resolve problems themselves, using the free resources available from organizations like Ms. Foley’s, Consumers Union (www.consumersunion.org) and the Federal Trade Commission (www.consumer.gov/idtheft).
Gail Hillebrand, a senior lawyer with the West Coast regional office of Consumers Union, noted that insurance was one response to identity theft, but consumers should also know – and use – new legislation put into place to protect them from identity theft.
By federal law, you are allowed one free report a year from credit agencies; in the New York metropolitan area this provision will take effect on Sept. 1.
A good tip is to stagger the reports by applying for one every four months from each credit agency instead of applying for them all at once.
Also, the minute you are notified of a possible identity theft and ask a credit agency to put out a fraud alert, you are eligible for a free report.
Five states already have laws allowing consumers to freeze their credit reports, then unfreeze them for a small fee.
That means that anyone applying, for example, for a loan or benefits in someone else’s name will be denied because access cannot be obtained to the credit report.
Consumer advocates caution consumers not to think of insurance as a panacea.
Just because you have a policy does not mean you can let down your guard: you still need to educate yourself about how to avoid identity theft.
If you do decide to buy insurance, be sure to look at what it includes.
Is there a limit on the number of hours the insurance company will reimburse for lost work time?
Does it matter if you are a salaried or hourly worker?
What about out-of-pocket expenses? What is the deductible?
Read the policies carefully.
Decide if it is worthwhile to spend the money.
And don’t forget to use that shredder.
………………
Want more?
Okay, how about a 2006 post on medical identity theft?
Here you go.
……………….
I’d never heard about it until Shawn Lea sent me a link to Eileen Ambrose’s Baltimore Sun column of May 15, which follows.
Watch out for medical identity theft
Report estimates that up to 500,000 consumers have been victimized so far
We shred our papers and delete anything “phishy” to prevent thieves from posing as us and stealing our money.
Now there’s a new twist to watch out for — medical identity theft.
This is when thieves use your name or insurance information to get medical treatment.
Or, they might use it to buy prescription drugs or get reimbursed by insurance companies for services you never received.
That’s not the worst of it.
False entries on health care records mean you could end up being treated based on someone else’s medical history, says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum.
Dixon’s group last week issued a report on this crime, roughly estimating that it has ensnared 250,000 to 500,000 consumers so far.
Often, the perpetrators are professional thieves selling pills or medical supplies online.
Sometimes, it’s the doctor.
A Massachusetts psychiatrist, for instance, filed false insurance claims for patients and non-patients alike, saying they were being treated for drug addiction or depression, Dixon says.
The chance of finding out about the theft is slim, and the discovery might not occur until long after the crime.
Often it’s a call from a bill collector that alerts victims.
That happened to a Colorado man who was dogged by a collection agency to pay ,000 for surgery someone else received under his name, the report says.
Some uncover the theft when an insurer won’t pay a bill because a thief’s claims put them over their insurance limit.
The psychiatrist’s fraud was uncovered when a victim was denied a job because of the fake mental diagnosis, Dixon says.
Clifton Gaus, president of Health Professor Inc. in California, says medical identity theft is an emerging problem, but states are unlikely to take action to protect consumers until it’s known how pervasive the crime is.
What can you do?
Ask your insurer each year for a list of benefits paid on your behalf, Dixon says.
This helps uncover cases where a thief changes your billing address.
Request an “accounting of disclosures” annually, she says.
Here, insurance and health care providers are required under federal law to tell you who accessed your records in certain cases.
This can help you spot any data breaches, Dixon says.
Also under federal law, you have a right to look at your medical file, although you might be charged a fee for a copy.
If you see errors, you’re entitled to ask that the record be amended. This isn’t the same as deleting wrong information. Amending a record, Dixon says, means you can place a paper in the file that disputes the wrong information.
(Seinfeld fans might recall Elaine’s failed attempt to steal her medical file to erase negative information, and then having to jump from doctor to doctor searching for one that didn’t know her record. She ended up seeking treatment from a vet.)
Sometimes in real life, a sympathetic doctor will remove false items from patients’ records, Dixon says.
But even this isn’t foolproof.
Wrong information might be on other paperwork that continues to be circulated among doctors, hospitals and insurers, she says.
……………….
More?
Alright, here’s last year’s post on identity theft targeting the wealthy.
……………….
Yesterday I remarked that T. C. Boyle’s novel “Talk Talk” was instructive along with being hugely entertaining.
Of particular interest to me was how his fictional criminals, as the story evolved, decided to focus on the rich, reasoning they offered far better targets of opportunity than hoi polloi.
As Willie Sutton replied when asked why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.”
The identity thieves performed in-depth online research on public library computers, making their activities untraceable to them as individuals.
Boyle’s book was published in 2006, which means he most likely finished writing it that year or in 2005.
He did his homework.
On August 17, 2007, Cassell Bryan-Low’s story headlined “‘ID-Theft Gang’ Targeting Wealthy People is Exposed” appeared in the Wall Street Journal; it follows.
‘ID-Theft Gang’ Targeting Wealthy People is Exposed
Case Shows Amount of Data Available to Public Online, Pursuit of Deeper Pockets
U.S. law-enforcement authorities arrested what they called an online identity-theft gang that they allege sought to steal millions of dollars by targeting wealthy individuals, including Michaels Stores Inc. co-founder Charles Wyly and a member of the Pritzker family.
The case underscores how cybercriminals are pursuing deeper pockets, and it highlights a coming of age for cybercriminals: Some who started out with credit-card fraud have progressed to bigger targets like brokerage and mortgage accounts, which have higher limits. It also sheds light on the amount of information that is publicly accessible, even to suspected criminals halfway around the world.
The ringleader in this case was a 24-year-old Russian named Igor Klopov, according to an indictment returned by a New York county grand jury that was unsealed yesterday. He stole .5 million and attempted to steal an additional .7 million from about 15 victims, many of whom he found through the Forbes 400 richest list, according to the indictment and prosecutors. Besides the individuals targeted, financial-services firms where his victims held accounts included Merrill Lynch & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Fidelity Investments, says the indictment.
The victim list also included a Silicon Valley couple, the head of a major credit-reporting agency and a wealthy Texas businessman, according to prosecutors. Many of the victims lived in states ? like Texas and California ? where deed information about properties is available online.
Mr. Klopov allegedly focused on people with a home-equity line of credit account, a way for homeowners to borrow against the value of a home as needed. By mining publicly available deed information online, Mr. Klopov was able to readily gain information about the value of property, size of outstanding mortgages, and existing lines of credit, prosecutors allege.
Mr. Klopov created dossiers on his victims and hired private investigators to provide him with additional information, prosecutors say. They say he also used online job-hunting Web sites to recruit accomplices to withdraw money from banks, providing them with fake identification and information on his targets. Mr. Klopov made travel arrangements for his collaborators, including reservations at five-star hotels and limo services, which he paid for with stolen credit-card numbers, prosecutors say.
U.S. authorities yesterday also said they had arrested four other individuals ? in Michigan, Texas, Florida and Kentucky. The defendants have been charged with theft, identity theft, money laundering and forgery, among other charges.
Another victim was Anthony Pritzker, a member of the Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. An assistant for Mr. Pritzker said he wasn’t reachable.
A spokesman for Fidelity said the incident involved one account in late 2005 and the company had reimbursed the customer. Spokesmen for Merrill and J.P. Morgan Chase declined to comment beyond saying the firms work with law enforcement.
The yearlong investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, the New York City Police Department and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
In one instance, Mr. Klopov allegedly tried to steal million from craft-store chain co-founder Mr. Wyly, who was a J.P. Morgan Chase customer. According to the indictment, Mr. Klopov, posing as Mr. Wyly, contacted the bank and asked that a new checkbook linked to a home-equity line of credit be sent to a Houston address associated with one of his cohorts. The cohort drafted a check for million and sent it to a gold dealer in Westchester, N.Y. To authenticate the check, the gold dealer called its bank, which also happened to be J.P. Morgan Chase, the indictment continues. The bank contacted Mr. Wyly, who informed them that he had never signed that check. J.P. Morgan Chase alerted authorities, who already were investigating Mr. Klopov.
William Brewer, a lawyer for Mr. Wyly, said Mr. Wyly “is grateful for the good work… done by law enforcement officials.”
Using an undercover agent, who already had developed an online relationship with Mr. Klopov, authorities led the defendant to believe the gold had been purchased and began arranging with Mr. Klopov plans for him to come to the U.S. to retrieve it, according to prosecutors. Authorities arrested Mr. Klopov under the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Mr. Klopov, who is from Moscow and is in custody, has denied the charges. An effort to reach an attorney for Mr. Klopov was unsuccessful.
……………….
Something for everyone, that’s our philosophy. (Source: bookofjoe)
Giuliani campaign facing budget crunch?
Supporters of Republican presidential hopeful and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani march into the Myrtle Beach Convention Center prior to a Republican presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008.
Fox News reported about an hour ago (and now just again) that the Giuliani campaign was asking staffers to work for free.
Immediately Flap’s Bull Shit meter went into gear.
Fox News is WRONG.
And, Flap screams BS.
Here is the statement from the campaign:
?Several members of our staff wanted to work without pay ? including the campaign manager ? as a way to contribute more to our efforts because they feel so strongly about Rudy?s run. Some other members of our senior staff were asked on a voluntary basis to forgo their paycheck for the month so all of our resources could be targeted toward Florida? That said, our campaign is not ? and has never been ? living hand to mouth??
The Florida primary election is in 18 days and Super Duper Tuesday is February 5 – not very far off. If the Giuliani campaign was having cash flow problems then they would miss what one payroll, February 1 – in any case? Or, maybe, two if you figure January 15?
This story is a plant and it is disingenuous of Fox News to deliberately report something that is false.
Update:
Ok, the story has been picked up by the AP and the other cable channels. Is this an indication that the Giuliani Campaign is having money problems?
“We have enough money, but we could always use more money,” contended Mike DuHaime, Giuliani’s campaign manager and one of those who now is working for free. “We want to make sure we have enough to win.”
At the end of December, he said the campaign had .5 million cash on hand, million of which can be used for the primary. He disputed the notion of a cash-strapped campaign, and said Giuliani continues to bring in cash; several fundraisers are scheduled this week in Florida.
DuHaime and other aides stressed that relinquishing pay was voluntary and was limited to senior staffers.
“I want to do everything I can to make sure Rudy’s president, and I speak for a lot of the campaign when I say that,” DuHaime said. “None of us joined this campaign for money.”
All of the GOP campaigns, except for Ron Paul (recently), have lagged behind the Democrats this year and have struggled financially.
On the GOP side, McCain is broke and floated a million loan to keep his campaign going. Romney has contributed over million (not counting the last quarter 2007) in his own wealth to fund the campaign and has gone dark (pulled campaign ads) every where except Michigan. Thompson is broke. Huckabee has never been prolific in his fundraising.
Good news is not on the horizon for any of the GOP candidates regarding campaign coffers.
But, what does this mean for the Giuliani campaign?
Probably not much since Florida and Super Tuesday are bunched so close together in the campaign calendar. If Rudy wins, he is flush with new cash. If he loses, then he is out and it doesn’t matter. (Source: FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog)
Links for 2008-01-13
MAN TO BEAT
Will McCain physically be able to compete through April? Doubtful. the man is 72 years old and everyoine will stay in waiting for a gaffe, a flair up of his temper or a heart attack.
(tags: 2008 McCain)
A Huck load of help in Michigan – First Read – msnbc.com
(tags: 2008 Huckabee)
Mitt tamps down expectations – First Read – msnbc.com
(tags: 2008 romney)
McCain hits Romney in Mich mailer – Jonathan Martin’s Blog – Politico.com
Another death blow for Romney?
(tags: 2008 romney McCain)
Problems and Priorities
“Which of the following issues will be MOST important to you when you decide how to vote for president:
(tags: 2008)
Praise and criticism for McCain in Livonia
Many in the crowded auditorium were clearly upset when McCain said some 10 million illegal immigrants would have to be dealt with fairly and humanely and not shipped wholesale out of the country.
(tags: 2008 McCain)
The Two Sides of McCain’s South Carolina Campaign – Swampland – TIME
McCain is not taking the high road and is as dishonest as the day is long. Take note Rudy
(tags: 2008 McCain)
Foe of Earmarks Has a Pet Cause of His Own – New York Times
Hypocrite McCain on earmarks
(tags: 2008 McCain)
Giuliani to make three campaign stops in Southwest Florida Monday | WINK News – Southwest Florida | Local & Florida
(tags: 2008 Giuliani)
Why is no Republican making this case? – Jonathan Martin’s Blog – Politico.com
Oh Rudy will when McCain gets down to Florida.
(tags: 2008 McCain Giuliani)
Romney’s Changing Core
(tags: 2008 romney)
Giuliani $$ man leaves post « FOX Embeds « FOXNews.com
(tags: 2008 Giuliani)
Power Line: The case against John McCain
(tags: 2008 McCain)
McCain loan could violate donor privacy – Kenneth P. Vogel – Politico.com
(tags: 2008 McCain)
Romney leads McCain in Michigan poll – Mike Allen – Politico.com
A Shocka – romney leads something
(tags: 2008 romney)
McCain tells Clawson crowd ‘we’re winning’ Iraq war
McCain tells Clawson crowd ‘we’re winning’ Iraq war.McCain is a legend in his own mind……McCain said water shortages are becoming a controversial issue and said that California “has stolen Arizona water.” He joked that Arizona’s water shortage is so se
(tags: 2008 McCain) (Source: FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog)
A notice for the potus
Goodness, gracious, great balls o’ fire!
I swear I am getting teary-eyed as I type.
The beauty….
The majesty….
The cap!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the epitome of the nursing cap.
A true 10/10 on the Emergiblog Nurse Cap Rating Scale.
Oh, I know, it doesn’t have any ribbon across it and yes, that is usually a requirement for a high rating on the ENCRS.
But she wears it so perfectly, perkily perched just so, no occipital slippage to mar the nursing image.
God didn’t rest on the seventh day, he created this nursing cap. Or, if you prefer, it evolved from a starched piece of cotton!
Either way, it is a masterpiece of design and craft.
**********
I wonder if I will actually be able to wear my cap during Nurses’ Week this May. Last year was the accident, so I was off for the week. The year before that hubby was in the hospital so I was off for the week.
I swear I am going to wear it this year no matter where I am or what I am doing!
******************************
To the next President of the United States,
The state of health care in this country should be high on your agenda once you are in office. Somehow, some way, we need to see that people have the means to pay for health care and that health care providers are compensated appropriately for delivering that care.
Whether our new system is based on private insurance, government oversight, universal coverage or the health plan du jour, one thing is certain.
We will need registered nurses. Lots of them. Many, many more than we have right now. Many, many more than our current system of nursing education is able to produce.
Nursing care is the primary reason for hospitalization. Nurses bring health care to the community and promote wellness. Advanced practice nurses can act as primary care providers, particularly in areas where our medical colleagues are scarce.
And we are losing them through retirement and burn out faster than we can replace them.
*****
Oh, there is no dearth of potential nurses in the United States. There are so many applicants that nursing students are often chosen by lottery and many wait years to get into a program.
There is not enough space in our current nursing programs, because there aren’t enough nursing educators.
This must be rectified.
Funding for nursing education must be increased. More funding means more educators can be hired. More educators means more nurses graduating.
Provide incentives to nurses for obtaining advanced degrees and choosing education as their focus. Loan forgiveness programs. Low interest educational loans for nurses. Grants and scholarships that are based on the willingness to educate future nurses.
We must begin producing the nursing leaders who will educate the next generation of the profession in the numbers required to provide the health care this nation needs.
*****
The average age of a registered nurse in this country is close to fifty. We bouncing baby boomers are aging right along with the nurses.
Who is going to take care of us in twenty years?
The answer lies in the nursing student who begins their studies today.
Let’s make sure the nursing educators are in place to produce those nurses. (Source: Emergiblog)
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Gastroenterology. 2008 Jan;134(1):47-55
Authors: Lim U, Flood A, Choi SW, Albanes D, Cross AJ, Schatzkin A, Sinha R, Katki HA, Cash B, Schoenfeld P, Stolzenberg-Solomon R
Background & Aims: Systemic inhibition of DNA methylation causes cancers in animals, in part by inducing genetic instability. Epidemiologic evidence linking low genomic methylation in systemic blood DNA to carcinogenesis is limited, however, specifically to the colorectum, in which genetic instability is a primary etiologic factor. We examined genomic methylation of leukocyte DNA in relation to colorectal adenoma (CRA) among asymptomatic women (40-79 years of age) participating in a multicenter colonoscopy screening study (CONCeRN Study, 2000-2002). Methods: Of all participants who completed self-administered risk factor and food frequency questionnaires, peripheral blood donation, and colonoscopy, 115 pairs of CRA cases and controls with matching age and month of blood draw were studied. Genomic methylation of leukocyte DNA was determined by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Compared with women in the lowest tertile of genomic methylation, women in the second (OR, 0.72; 95% CI: 0.34-1.52) and third tertiles (OR, 0.17; 95% CI: 0.06-0.49) had lower risk of CRA (P trend = .002). The inverse relationship was stronger for nonadvanced than for advanced adenoma and, less notably, for proximal than for distal adenoma. The association was also moderately more protective with low rather than high total folate intake but did not differ by other nutrients involved in 1-carbon metabolism or colorectal cancer risk factors. Conclusions: Our findings regarding asymptomatic CRA implicate systemic genomic methylation as a potential etiologic factor for an early stage of CRA.
PMID: 18166347 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
(Source: Gastroenterology)
Forrest gump, zero-gravity thinker
Above, Cynthia Barton Rabe’s description of outsiders brought in to companies to encourage innovation.
Rabe’s 2006 book, “Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine ? And What Smart Companies Are Doing About It,” elaborated on her term.
Too bad about the way too long title.
Anyway.
Janet Rae-Dupree’s December 30, 2007 New York Times essay on innnovation began, “It’s a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off.”
Her interesting piece explored reasons why and possible solutions; it follows.
Innovative Minds Don?t Think Alike
It’s a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.
Andrew S. Grove, the co-founder of Intel, put it well in 2005 when he told an interviewer from Fortune, ?When everybody knows that something is so, it means that nobody knows nothin?.? In other words, it becomes nearly impossible to look beyond what you know and think outside the box you?ve built around yourself.
This so-called curse of knowledge, a phrase used in a 1989 paper in The Journal of Political Economy, means that once you?ve become an expert in a particular subject, it?s hard to imagine not knowing what you do. Your conversations with others in the field are peppered with catch phrases and jargon that are foreign to the uninitiated. When it?s time to accomplish a task ? open a store, build a house, buy new cash registers, sell insurance ? those in the know get it done the way it has always been done, stifling innovation as they barrel along the well-worn path.
Elizabeth Newton, a psychologist, conducted an experiment on the curse of knowledge while working on her doctorate at Stanford in 1990. She gave one set of people, called ?tappers,? a list of commonly known songs from which to choose. Their task was to rap their knuckles on a tabletop to the rhythm of the chosen tune as they thought about it in their heads. A second set of people, called ?listeners,? were asked to name the songs.
Before the experiment began, the tappers were asked how often they believed that the listeners would name the songs correctly. On average, tappers expected listeners to get it right about half the time. In the end, however, listeners guessed only 3 of 120 songs tapped out, or 2.5 percent.
The tappers were astounded. The song was so clear in their minds; how could the listeners not ?hear? it in their taps?
That?s a common reaction when experts set out to share their ideas in the business world, too, says Chip Heath, who with his brother, Dan, was a co-author of the 2007 book ?Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.? It?s why engineers design products ultimately useful only to other engineers. It?s why managers have trouble convincing the rank and file to adopt new processes. And it?s why the advertising world struggles to convey commercial messages to consumers.
?I have a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too,? Mr. Heath says. ?People who design products are experts cursed by their knowledge, and they can?t imagine what it?s like to be as ignorant as the rest of us.?
But there are proven ways to exorcise the curse.
In their book, the Heath brothers outline six ?hooks? that they say are guaranteed to communicate a new idea clearly by transforming it into what they call a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story. Each of the letters in the resulting acronym, Succes, refers to a different hook. (?S,? for example, suggests simplifying the message.) Although the hooks of ?Made to Stick? focus on the art of communication, there are ways to fashion them around fostering innovation.
To innovate, Mr. Heath says, you have to bring together people with a variety of skills. If those people can?t communicate clearly with one another, innovation gets bogged down in the abstract language of specialization and expertise. ?It?s kind of like the ugly American tourist trying to get across an idea in another country by speaking English slowly and more loudly,? he says. ?You?ve got to find the common connections.?
In her 2006 book, ?Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine ? and What Smart Companies Are Doing About It,? Cynthia Barton Rabe proposes bringing in outsiders whom she calls zero-gravity thinkers to keep creativity and innovation on track.
When experts have to slow down and go back to basics to bring an outsider up to speed, she says, ?it forces them to look at their world differently and, as a result, they come up with new solutions to old problems.?
She cites as an example the work of a colleague at Ralston Purina who moved to Eveready in the mid-1980s when Ralston bought that company. At the time, Eveready had become a household name because of its sales since the 1950s of inexpensive red plastic and metal flashlights. But by the mid-1980s, the flashlight business, which had been aimed solely at men shopping at hardware stores, was foundering.
While Ms. Rabe?s colleague had no experience with flashlights, she did have plenty of experience in consumer packaging and marketing from her years at Ralston Purina. She proceeded to revamp the flashlight product line to include colors like pink, baby blue and light green ? colors that would appeal to women ? and began distributing them through grocery store chains.
?It was not incredibly popular as a decision amongst the old guard at Eveready,? Ms. Rabe says. But after the changes, she says, ?the flashlight business took off and was wildly successful for many years after that.?
Ms. Rabe herself experienced similar problems while working as a transient ?zero-gravity thinker? at Intel.
?I would ask my very, very basic questions,? she said, noting that it frustrated some of the people who didn?t know her. Once they got past that point, however, ?it always turned out that we could come up with some terrific ideas,? she said.
While Ms. Rabe usually worked inside the companies she discussed in her book, she said outside consultants could also serve the zero-gravity role, but only if their expertise was not identical to that of the group already working on the project.
?Look for people with renaissance-thinker tendencies, who?ve done work in a related area but not in your specific field,? she says. ?Make it possible for someone who doesn?t report directly to that area to come in and say the emperor has no clothes.? (Source: bookofjoe)
Clinical crossroads: a 32-year-old woman with chronic abdominal pain
The patient described and interviewed below faces a crossroads regarding her medical care. Consider her perspective, expressed in his own words. Then review the questions posed and imagine you are caring for Ms C. How would you approach this crossroads? Use evidence from the literature and your own experience, and follow the instructions provided at the “Submit Response” link to the right. Responses will be selected for posting online based on their quality, including use of the available evidence, weighing the issues, and addressing the patient’s concerns. The discussion of this Clinical Crossroads case, authored by Drs Brian E. Lacy and Brooks D. Cash, will be published in the February 6, 2008, issue of JAMA; responses must be submitted by January 30, 2008, to be considered for online posting. (Source: JAMA)
