Baby Dax

Image is not related.

Katie Amos and her fiancé Lee Johnston were enjoying a holiday getaway to New York when she unexpectedly went into labor while walking through Central Park. Baby Dax was born 11 weeks early, weighing just 3 pounds.

The boy won't be ready to go home until March. In the meantime, the new parents have been given accommodations at Ronald McDonald House, which helps families of hospital patients free of charge.

The British couple worried about a possible $200,000 hospital bill after their baby was born prematurely on the trip. 

Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan said it would ensure that "there will be no financial impact to the family," whose ordeal garnered media attention in the U.K. and the U.S.

The hospital would work with the family's insurance carrier regarding payment for all services rendered.

A Facebook page set up to raise money for the family also posted that "all medical bills will be covered."

To help cover the medical bills, the couple posted their story and an appeal for donations on the website GoGetFunding.com, under the title "Dax's Tale of New York."

How many Americans couldn't pay their healthcare inflated Bills?  Can we improve our healthcare services to make it efficient similar to other advanced Countries?

Just a thought.

Deer Hunters.

The season for both gun and bow hunters has been extended through the end of January, including weekends.

The state Department of Agriculture estimates some 30,000 deer live in Suffolk. They are blamed for the spread of tick-borne diseases, auto accidents and crop damage.

Some homeowners bordering the hunting grounds are worried that weekend hours will bring a flood of hunters from across the Northeast. Weekend hunting had always been allowed upstate.

“I don’t think it’s a real good idea, especially on the weekends when the kids are home.
“I’ve seen it before, you know. They’ll drop a deer at the corner of your property and get blood trails all the way back there and that’s not right. One resident

The state’s deer-culling sharpshooter program last spring was widely considered a disappointment. However, hunter Craig Dahlgren said alternative solutions that have been tried have not worked.  Some think hunting is the best way.  

I am not too crazy about the whole thing and particularly the Bows. It is unfair trade.   Just a thought.

A toddler with a gun

A young mother was shot and killed by her 2-year-old son  in an Idaho Walmart, police said.

Lt. Stu Miller of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said that the boy was sitting in the shopping cart when pulled the handgun from his mom's purse and pulled the trigger. Police identified the victim as Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, of Blackfoot, Idaho.

 

The preliminary investigation shows the shooting was an accident, police said. He added that the victim was from out of town and may have been visiting relatives for the holidays. The boy was with family members.

 

Rutledge was shopping in the electronics section of the Hayden, Idaho, store, about 40 miles from Spokane, Washington, when the shooting happened. The store was immediately evacuated and was to be closed until Wednesday. The investigation was ongoing.

 

"A very sad and tragic incident happened in our Hayden store involving a female customer, and we're working with the local sheriff's department while they investigate what happened," Walmart spokesperson. 

Danger is everywhere, particularly if you create it yourself. Just a thought.

Out of Afghanistan

After 13 years of military engagement in Afghanistan, the US-led involvement in the Middle Eastern country ended on Monday on a subdued note.

With Kabul subject to repeated Taliban bombings, the authorities took the decision to conduct the closing ceremony at an undisclosed location somewhere in the capital.
The campaign has come at a heavy cost, with 3,500 foreign soldiers having died in the war and $1 trillion being spent.

At the conclusion of the longest war in America’s history President Obama said: “We salute every American – military and civilian, including our dedicated diplomats and development workers – who have served in Afghanistan, many on multiple tours, just as their families have sacrificed at home.”

About 13,000 foreign troops, mostly Americans, will remain in the country under a new, two-year mission named “Resolute Support” that will continue the coalition’s training of Afghan security forces to fight the insurgents, who have killed record numbers of Afghans this year.

You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Just a thought.

Macadamia Nuts...*!

Heather Cho [Cho Hyun-ah] resigned from the airline's catering, in-flight sales business, its cabin service and hotel business divisions.

But she is keeping her title as a vice president of the national carrier. Just far away from Nuts.

According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Cho is the eldest daughter of Korean Air's chairman, Cho Yang-ho.

The incident occurred Friday at New York's JFK airport on a flight due to take off for South Korea's, outside Seoul.

Cho reportedly demanded that the plane go back to the gate so the crew member who served her could be kicked off the flight.

Korean Air is facing $1.3 Million fine after CEO's daughter delayed takeoff in response to macadamia nut service.

According to her biography, Heather Cho joined the airline in 1999 and has since been "actively involved in establishing a new corporate identity for Korean Air." She studied at Cornell University and the University of Southern California.

Nuts any one?     Just a thought.

A friend...?

The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded John Paul II in 1981 laid white flowers Saturday on the saint's tomb in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican officials said.

The surprise visit by Mehmet Agca, believed to be his first time in the Vatican since the assassination attempt, lasted a few minutes, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said. 

Benedettini said there are no legal matters pending against Agca in the Vatican and he was free to visit. Agca's trip came on the 31st anniversary of his meeting with the pope.

John Paul, forgave his attacker, visited Agca in a Rome prison on Dec. 27, 1983, and later intervened to gain Agca's release in 2000. Agca was extradited to Turkey For the 1979 killing of a Turkish journalist and he completed a 10-year sentence.

When Agca was apprehended after shooting the pontiff in St. Peter's Square during a public audience, the Turk said he acted alone. Later he suggested Bulgaria and the Soviet secret services masterminded the attack on the Polish-born pontiff, whose championing of the Polish Solidarity labor movement alarmed Moscow.

Twice, Italian juries acquitted three Bulgarians and three Turks of alleged roles in the shooting. Agca has often given contradictory accounts and has claimed to be a Messiah.

Italian TV ran a brief video of the tomb visit, apparently filmed by an Italian journalist accompanying Agca in the basilica. The Turk is heard to mumble, "A thousand thanks, saint," and "Long live Jesus Christ."

He also said: "Today I have come because on Dec. 27, 1983, I met the pope."

Just a thought.

In Search....

Officer Rafael Ramos.

Sextremist...?*

A blond pro-choice activist wearing nothing over her torso except the written words "God is Woman" interrupted a Nativity scene at the St. Peter's Square in Rome on Christmas Day.

An online video of the incident shows the woman sneak underneath the fence and then storm the nativity display on a stone stage as hundreds of people watched.

She grabs the baby Jesus and hoists it over her head and yelled a message, but the video did not contain audio. She was quickly apprehended by an officer who covered her in his jacket. Eventually several cops responded and the woman was taken away in a vehicle.   Baby Jesus was returned to his manger.

The woman is part of Femen, an organization of topless female protestors who oppose the political power of the clergy.
The group states on its website that the unidentified "sextremist" was part of its campaign that opposes the church's stance on women's rights over their own bodies.

"The maniacal desire to control women's fertility is a common trait of many religions, National Socialism, nationalism and other antediluvian, anti-humanist ideologies," the group says. "Abortion is sacred!"

People are looking for the "Naked" Truth.         Just a thought.

"Don't Cry for.... Sony

The cyberattack on Sony exposed sensitive internal communications and coerced theater chains to drop one of the company's films. It represents a seminal moment in the advancement of hacking.

While the attack was not technologically sophisticated, its success may embolden other cyber criminals to follow suit.  The hackers not only released internal emails and other information, but wiped data from Sony's system.

North Korea called the comedy an "evil act of provocation" and threatened "stern punishment" against its star and co-director Seth Rogen. The crippling Sony Pictures hack followed soon after, with the studio's upcoming films and confidential, industry-shaking emails leaked.

Meanwhile, North Korea still denies any involvement in the Sony hack, even as the FBI pointed the finger at them. North Korea has issued a proposal for a joint investigation into the incident.

Sony Cancelled then cancelled the cancelation of broadcasting the film as the President, the Country and the public stood fast against this threat.

All in All, North Korea, if true, gave Sony a free publicities, no one else got, for a  (Non-Sense) movie. Let us see the review and the revenue once the dust settles.

Just a thought.

A Week-End- AbbVie

On Friday, the FDA approved AbbVie's Viekira Pak.
AbbVie had done Gilead a huge favor pricing its new hepatitis C drug on par with Gilead's Harvoni.
 
AbbVie announced a deal with Express Scripts making Viekira Pak the Exclusive hepatitis C drug covered by the pharmacy benefits manager for patients infected with the genotype 1 virus, [most common in US]. Gilead's Sovaldi will still be available for other genotypes 

Neither Express Scripts nor AbbVie is disclosing how much of a discount to get the exclusivity. You can't blame them; it's not to either company's advantage to disclose it, tipping off the authorities, the public, and the Congressional bodies.

Gilead was down 14% on the day of the annoucement,  investors are worried about the potential to be knocked out of other markets or give steep discounts. The discount problem is compounded because the price that government programs Medicare and Medicaid pay for drugs are set based on the price drug-makers give to private insurers. We could be in a full-blown price war soon between corporation to their own benefits.

With a thousand Dollars [$1000] per day treatment, the Pharmaceutical companies, PBMs and the Insurances having a FIESTA while the 3 Millions US patient is paying three folds the price of a European or Canadian patients. 

Chuck Schumer asking how come the Airline tickets is priced high while oil prices collapsing?  The answer is simple.
You don't have to travel, but you have to have health. Pay a little attention to what is important.

Just a thought.