E, your comments about med mal ins also reflect the situation in my state, where Ob-Gyns, neurosurgeons and others have left in droves. Of course, our state is medical malpractice lawsuit heaven. All the neurosurgeons left Wheeling, W.Va., a few years back and we in were the same boat as Decatur - having to go to Pittsburgh or Morgantown for such medical services. Since then, a Pgh. group sends a guy down a couple of days a week, but the local hospitals still report losing money because of the puny medicare reimbursements (of course, with an elderly and poor population, a lot of the patients here are on Medicare or Medicaid).
In other news, Cindy Adams reports Michael Jackson is looking for a new lawyer, though Mark Geragos will deny it. There were stories yesterday that Johnnie Cochran was going to take the Pervert's case, but that rumor and the one about Jacko joining Calypso Louie's Nation of Islami-loonies are shot down in this Daily News story.
THE HAGUE -- Friday – Former NATO commander Wesley Clark was granted unprecedented privileges during his testimony at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, including permission to contact former US president Bill Clinton, B92 reports.
Clark testified on Monday and Tuesday, though transcripts were only released yesterday after being looked over by the US government.
“The oddest thing of all was that he was allowed during his testimony to stand up and leave his bench, make a telephone call, or something else,” Belgrade journalist Ljiljana Smajlovic told B92. “The other unusual thing is that Clark was allowed to contact Bill Clinton during the testimony, to ask him to send a letter or fax supporting his claims. He was allowed to read out Clinton’s fax despite the fact Judge May always warns witnesses that during the break they are not allowed to talk to anyone.”
Clark, who is running for US president, arrived at The Hague with an army of aides, while the tribunal website carried the telephone numbers of his public relations experts. source