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5/17/2012
Dog bites man does not get a lot of attention in the news, but it costs insurance companies hundreds of millions in claims every year.
State Farm Insurance, one of the nation’s largest home insurers, paid more than $109 million on about 3,800 dog bite claims nationwide last year, spokesman Eddie Martinez said Wednesday. In 2010, there were about 3,500 claims and $90 million in payouts.
The Insurance Information Institute estimated that nearly $479 million in dog bite claims were paid by all insurance companies in 2011, spokeswoman Loretta Worters said. In 2010, it was $413 million.
It’s no surprise that California — home to more dogs and people than any other state — led the way in 2011.
Martinez says 527 claims were filed in California and victims received $20.3 million, a jump of 31 percent over 2010.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/insurance-companies-paid-out-479-million-in-dog-bite-claims-across-the-country-in-2011/2012/05/16/gIQAotDWUU_story.html
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5/17/2012
Immortalized in movies and YouTube videos, food fights are the prank that just don't seem to get old. It was a practical joke seniors at Smithville High School thought suited their 2012 legacy. "You just do a prank -- nothing that's going to break anything, nothing that's going to hurt anybody, just something to make a statement that we were here," explained senior Ashley Johnson.Seventeen-year-old Johnson used to go to Smithville High School. She'll spend the next two weeks until graduation at D.A.E.P., an off campus suspension nicknamed "bootcamp." "I'm upset because I didn't get to finish out what I started," sighed senior Hayley Willis. She shares the fate of Johnson and eight other girls, all from the senior prank pulled last Tuesday. "Basically it was burrito day," explained Willis. "That's just meat, and sour cream, and guacamole just slopped into one." At exactly 12:38 p.m. during B lunch at Smithville High, the students let it fly.
http://www.kvue.com/news/Controversial-food-fight-suspends-nine-high-school-seniors-151795405.html
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5/17/2012
The United Educators Associationin Fort Worth is encouraging its 20,000 members to use camera phones to deal with unruly students inside the classroom.
It's a controversial subject that most North Texas school districts say they haven't had to deal with, but with technology creeping into the classrooms, some say it's only a matter of time.
"A classroom is not an expectation of privacy... that's a public forum anybody can walk in, walk out... not an expectation of privacy," said UEA executive director Larry Shaw.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Union-encouraging-teachers-to-use-cameras-in-the-classroom--151816515.html
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5/17/2012
Timed to upend the Democratic National Convention in September, the plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” the strategists wrote.
The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign.
“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/politics/gop-super-pac-weighs-hard-line-attack-on-obama.html
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5/17/2012
May has been a bad month for President Obama's re-election campaign. Let's review some of the lowlights.
First, Team Obama politicized the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death on May 2 by releasing a video claiming that Mitt Romney would not have ordered the strike. The video didn't pay much tribute to the Navy SEALs who actually carried out the perilous mission. The whole thing came across as ungracious and egocentric.
On May 4, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that only 115,000 new jobs were created in April while 342,000 Americans became so discouraged that they dropped out of the workforce. When unemployment creeps down because people are leaving the labor force, it's evidence of a sick economy, not a robust recovery.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577408101945994054.html
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5/16/2012
The Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio will drop health insurance coverage for students this fall rather than comply with a federal mandate that its plan provide free birth control.
University officials on Tuesday also cited rising insurance costs for their decision to end student health coverage.
“The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover ‘women’s health services’ including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA),” according to a university statement. “Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.”
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11720706-franciscan-university-drops-student-health-insurance-plan-over-birth-control-mandate-costs?lite
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5/16/2012
As he seeks a third term as Travis County sheriff, Greg Hamilton would prefer the race be about issues like putting more deputies on the streets and ways to improve mental health resources for people booked into the county jail.
But after criticism from Hamilton's opponent in the Democratic primary, John Sisson, the focus has shifted almost entirely to one issue: immigration. More specifically, how the sheriff's office deals with requests from the federal government to hold suspects with questionable immigration statuses for possible deportation.
Sisson has emerged as a critic of the way the Travis County Jail handles Secure Communities, a program that helps the federal government identify potential deportation targets by comparing fingerprints against immigration databases after they are booked.
At the center of the dispute over Secure Communities are two interpretations of the federal law behind it.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/immigration-central-issue-in-democratic-primary-for-travis-2358403.html
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5/16/2012
A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.
Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for the Feb. 26 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old high school junior dead. Zimmerman has claimed self defense in what he described as a life and death struggle that Martin initiated by accosting him, punching him in the face, then repeatedly bashing his head into the pavement.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-medical-report-sheds-light-injuries-trayvon/story?id=16353532
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5/16/2012
First impressions are said to play a big part in how we are perceived by romantic interests and potential employers.
But people can tell more about you than what can be gathered from a firm handshake and a warm smile, according to new research.
People have an inbuilt 'gaydar', which enables them to judge in the blink of an eye whether someone is gay or straight, a study at the University of Washington has found.
And it is easier to judge a woman's sexuality than a man's - just from glancing at them.
The study asked students to guess someone's sexuality from looking at pictures of their faces for less than a second.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2144904/Washington-University-study-finds-people-inbuilt-gaydar.html#ixzz1v2CkNVJI
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5/16/2012
The increasing role of standardized testing in U.S. classrooms is triggering pockets of rebellion across the country from school officials, teachers and parents who say the system is stifling teaching and learning.
-third of the state's total—have adopted a resolution this year asking lawmakers to scale back testing. In Everett, Wash., more than 500 children skipped state exams in protest earlier this month. A national coalition of parents and civil-rights groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, signed a petition in April asking Congress to reduce federal testing mandates.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303505504577406603829668714.html
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