News Today 1/25/05

Listened to Morning Edition, as usual between 8 and 9 AM. Also listened to a show called Counterspin. Got to find the website for that show, becuase it deals mainly with PR and what PR people do to popular stories in the media today. Fascinating!!

First stories this morning were briefs on Iraqi elections and Allawi’s statements about troop withdrawals, AARP announcing how seniors don’t support the SS reforms, and stock reports (I think today was quarterly earnings releases).

<>A major story today is that Bush will ask congress today for an additional $80 billion for military operations. The money will go mainly to Iraq and Afghanistan, with some (rumor has it) going to Tsunami relief and to support the new government in Ukraine. It was not long ago that Bush asked for $25 billion, and he got it. Total this fiscal year: $105 billion. Total expenses for the war on terror, with the bulk going to Iraq: $300 billion. Sick. And despite all this money we are spending and lives we are losing and people we are killing, Iraqi elections are on shaky ground.

An interesting report on a law enacted when I lived in the city: Kendra’s Law. Poor Kendra was killed on the streets of New York by a mentally ill man who should’ve been committed but was roaming around free because his mental hospital closed and he had no alternative care. Apparently it is doing a lot of good in New York, and to prove it they interviewed a mother who had her grown son committed under Kendra’s Law. Her son was fine, then became violent (some kind of schizophrenic disorder), but would not take treatment or stay on meds. Kendra’s Law allowed her to force him into treatment, and now he must be on a regimented treatment program or risk getting involuntarily committed to a mental institution. NPR also interviewed people from opposing groups, including a lawyer (?) who says that Kendra’s Law interferes with people’s civil rights. This statement was contradicted by someone pointing out that sometimes paranoids/schizophrenics/manic-depressives/whatever don’t realize they are sick, and are so suspicious of treatment that there is no other way to get these very ill people into care. The lawyer came back with the fact that involuntary commitment is equivalent to unfair incarceration. After all, being sick is not a crime in and of itself. But you cannot deny that the parent with the mentally ill adult son, and the adult son, were better off for Kendra’s Law.

<>Richard Scrushy made the news this morning for all the bad, bad things he did at HealthSouth. He will be going to trial under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This trial is the first one to use Sarbanes-Oxley, so there is a lot of focus on it. Sounds like, from the reports, that this case is a slam dunk, but you never know. NPR also focused on the Christian show the Scrushy’s host, but they made it sound so sordid, as in we steal money from innocent investors, but look at what good Christians we are!! Look!! How can the Scrushy’s be bad if they do good works/host a Christian TV show/make a show of being religious. Very cynical. In the end the message is: keep an eye on this case. It should be interesting.

Big news for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They are partnering with Norway to give $1.5 billion to the GAVI organization. GAVI runs vaccination programs for children worldwide. Supposedly it is really helping things all over the place, but some think the program is not focusing on the right problems. NPR pointed out that the Gates Foundation also supports international health coverage on NPR, FYI.

At the end they always do a nice feel-good piece. This one was on girls’/women’s basketball programs. Sounds like girl ball players are beginning to come into their own. Now even high school programs are getting quite competitive, so college teams are getting better and better. There are more than just a handful of really good teams out there these days, so games are more interesting and attendance is going up. What does it all mean? More TV coverage and more recognition for great athletes on women’s teams.