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A Loudoun County Adult Detention Center inmate who had recently been to Ebola-affected areas of West Africa has been transported to Inova Loudoun Hospital in Lansdowne after experiencing a low-grade fever, the first symptom of the deadly virus. The inmate had traveled from West Africa within the past 21 days, according to a press release from Loudoun County's Communications Office. "As a precautionary measure, because the inmate had traveled from a high-risk area known for Ebola outbreaks, the inmate was isolated and monitored at the ADC," according to the statement. "Out of an abundance of caution, protective measures were put...

Leaders say that if a bill to boost Maryland's minimum wage had been under consideration earlier, Tanger Outlet might have located its mall outside Prince George's County. The regional effort by Maryland and District officials to raise the minimum wage enters a critical phase this week in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, reports the Washington Post, with complications that include allowing some municipalities to opt out of the wage increase. Last month, lawmakers from three localities announced a collaborative effort to lift the minimum wage to at least $11.50 an hour by 2016, the Post said. Earlier this month the...

Since there is clearly no legitimate excuse for the healthcare.gov debacle, I have been wondering why the HHS sec and president want the signups to be so difficult. An idea has occurred to me: to punish the states that declined to set up their own exchanges. I believe this administration's priorities are: 1. Punish your enemies 2. Massively redistribute wealth away from earners (and to your cronies wherever possible) 3. Remake this country into a bleak, totalitarian backwater, making sure we can never go back Given that, doesn't it make sense that this exercise should be made to HURT? If...

When Mary Porter enrolled last year at East Central Community College in Rolla, Mo., she landed a job at a fast-food restaurant and worked full-time for minimum wage to pay the bills. Things were looking up for the budding college student, who had grown up a ward of the state’s foster care system. But earlier this year, Porter’s hours were cut. Her employer cited the Affordable Care Act as the reason, she told The College Fix. “Then they told us that they couldn’t afford to pay us health insurance,” said Porter, 22, who is no longer allowed to work more...

HHS has given itself the flexibility to impose a different standard because the agency realized that current HIPAA-approved transaction used to communicate payment-related information will not provide the necessary information for the risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridors programs. Therefore, other standards are available to HHS for certain transactions, and indeed HHS adopts a non-HIPAA standard to solve the above-mentioned problem via the final rule’s preamble.[14]

Okaz, the same prominent Saudi newspaper, that published photos of Abdul Rahman Ali Issa Al-Salimi Al-Harbi in the hospital after the Boston marathon bombings, is now reporting that the Saudi national was also visited by the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama during his hospital stay. ... In light of recent reports that Alharbi was scheduled for deportation on ‘national security grounds’, the first lady’s visit takes on much added significance if those reports are true. We already know that the Alharbi clan consists of multiple Al-Qaeda members. This would seem to bolster the claims of scheduled deportation,...

As if it's not enough for the TSA to feel you up at the airport, now they're experimenting with rapid results DNA scanners that can scan and analyze your DNA using just a drop of saliva. Spit at the TSA agent who is molesting you, in other words, and they can use that saliva to scan your DNA and then store it in a government database. Why would they want to do that? We can only imagine. Remember, it was Alex Jones who broke the story about hospitals secretly taking blood samples of babies and handing them over to the...

The biggest insurer in New York is debuting a pay for performance program to reward doctors who comply with certain best practices, but won’t penalize those who fall short. Empire BlueCross BlueShield plans to use claim data to better monitor whether physicians are complying with widely accepted medical best practices. Doctors who score well will receive better reimbursements. “The measurements are taking place,” said Dr. Scott Breidbart, chief medical officer for Empire, which serves about 5 million members. “We are rolling out this year in New York.” Other BlueCross BlueShield plans already have debuted similar programs, including Anthem, in Connecticut....

The US Department of Agriculture continues its unprecedented give-away to big agriculture monster Monsanto and its Genetically Modified (GMO) seeds. On Friday, while the media was preoccupied with the Superbowl and Egypt’s rioting, the USDA quietly announced it was deregulating Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets – despite a court order. This move comes just a week after the agency had gone back on its own plan to regulate GMO alfalfa to at least attempt to keep it from contaminating organic farms. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack had been floating a plan to limit the area where the GMO crop could be...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Pepsi is packing up production after deciding to stop making soda in Baltimore City, and they’re blaming the new city beverage tax. Kelly McPherson explains the decision also puts dozens of people out of work. Pepsi will continue to transport products in and out of Hampden but no longer will carbonated beverages be made here. Seventy-five workers have lost their jobs. Pepsi says it’s the economic climate—and something else. “In the case of Baltimore, as you may know, there was a beverage tax that was passed here and in this case, it did not help in the...

A ballot question asking voters to call a convention to revise the state's constitution was supported by 55 percent of those who voted on the question, but the measure did not pass because too many voters abstained. For a convention to be called, the number of people voting "yes" on the question would need to be more than 50 percent of the total number of Marylanders who voted. Although 55 percent, or about 845,021 voters were in favor of calling a convention, outnumbering the 703,426 who opposed, 191,548 voters did not vote on the question at all, essentially working against...

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending Oct. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 457,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 437,000. The 4-week moving average was 456,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average of 454,000.

Dr. Janda discusses healthcare rationing, both in the 'stimulus' and 'healthcare' bills.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - UnitedHealth Group Inc is trying to change how it reimburses oncologists using a method the insurer says could improve treatment practices. The U.S. health insurer has started a pilot program involving five physician practices across the country, focusing on breast, colon and lung cancers, the company announced on Wednesday. Oncologists currently buy chemotherapies and other drugs directly at wholesale prices, and then are reimbursed at higher retail rates, UnitedHealth said. Oncologists make about 60 percent of their income from selling drugs in this way, according to UnitedHealth, the largest health insurer by market value. They may...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — An investigation that found wide-ranging misuse of money at the U.S. Naval Academy was a factor in curtailing the tenure of its outgoing superintendent, the Navy's chief spokesman said Monday. The investigative report released Monday found that an improper, off-the-books slush fund was used to pay for tailgate parties, luncheons and other events for senior academy personnel. Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler is leaving the academy this summer after serving as superintendent for 3 years, the minimum term required by statute for the post. "The outcome of this investigation was a factor in him not serving longer," said...

I caught this yesterday and had to turn off the tv in disgust. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-xiDvb58wQ Congress, again, wishes to throw a wrench in business and walk away. Very smug gov't wants to tell BP how to run their finances, but says the stock market will do whatever it does, as if there is no relation between the market and government meddling.

Naval Academy upperclassmen call greaseless climb a 'joke' The Naval Academy's annual Herndon Climb had hardly begun yesterday before it was over. Midshipman 4th Class Keegan Albi, from Eugene, Ore., scaled the 21-foot-tall obelisk in two minutes, five seconds. Academy officials decreed this year that the Herndon Monument was not to be greased with lard, as is customary, and that the freshmen, or plebes, were not to be sprayed with garden hoses, as in most years. Also, the hat that the plebes were to remove from the top of the monument could not be taped or glued down. The climb...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ― Grain alcohol would not be available for sale in Maryland, under a proposal from a western Maryland lawmaker. State legislators will hold a hearing Friday on the bill, which would prohibit the sale of beverages with an alcohol content of 95 percent or more. Sen. George Edwards said he introduced the legislation at the request of Frostburg State University leaders. He said he backs the bill for safety reasons, because "when you get to 190 proof, you're almost pure alcohol and it don't take much of that to do somebody in." State legislative staffers say at...

My sister just reported back to me from the doctors' rally in DC this evening. She went with her husband and 3 teenaged daughters. Here is what she reported: It was a great, well-behaved crowd of about 1000 -- mostly doctors and some nurses. They came from across the country and all sorts of practices. She said the speakers were just folks ... that they did not appear to be professional speakers. They were just doctors, speaking from the heart. They told of personal experiences of government interference in individual care and practices and the consequences. There were a couple...

OFFICE MANAGER: Please print this announcement for all your doctor(s): Doctors: Please Consider Doing Something That Does Not Come Naturally to Most of Us. Having hundreds or thousands of doctors from around the country attend a rally against socialized medicine may make a difference. Traditionally most of us have not wanted to get involved in politics. However, America and American Medicine is at a historic fork in the road. President Obama’s path of nationalizing medicine will do great harm to us in many ways. Socializing 1/7th of the American economy hurts us in spirit and character, economically and medically. America...