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Whew, I have been one busy girl here lately. I'll start with our adventures over the Christmas holiday.
Sunday the week of Christmas, my family and I went on our annual trip to Honor Heights park in Muskogee. We always go and eat at El Chico's and then drive through the park to look at the Christmas lights. It's a guaranteed good time :) Unfortunately on Sunday, the cough I had been fighting started getting much worse. My sister listened to my chest and heard a wheeze so we called my doctor (who is also our friend) and had her call in a steroid for me.
Monday at work, I kept having coughing fits, and the doctor I work for thought I might have pertusis (or whooping cough). So I got a swab jammed up my nose to find out. She also wanted me to start an antibiotic right away b/c if it was pertusis, it is very contagious and we have babies that come in that are not yet vaccinated against it. So Monday night, I waited at WalMart for an hour and a half on my prescriptions. I kept having coughing fits and people were looking at me like I had the plague! It was not a fun evening.
Tuesday was pretty uneventful, and I did start feeling a little better. Wednesday, bad weather started moving into town, and it got cold and snowy. I went to our church's Christmas candle light service, and coughed my way through praise and worship :)
Thursday was Christmas eve, and I had to work half a day but we got to close the office about 11am. I went straight home and Drew and I started the normally 2 hour journey to Ada. Because of the snow and ice, it took us close to 3 hours, but we made it safely thanks to my husbands wonderful driving skills. (I'm kissing up here, you'll see why later.) We spent Thursday afternoon/evening with Drew's dad, and then stayed the night and woke up at his mom's house. We spent the morning and lunch with her, and headed home about 2pm to see my family Friday night. We went down through Stroud and got on I-40 to go home, which is usually a good route. My dad called and told us a semi had wrecked on I-40 so we needed to exit at Kellyville, which is before our normal exit, but can still get us home. About 4 miles before the Kellyville exit, traffic came to a dead stop. We turned off the car and sat for over an hour. We had Hank with us, so we took him for a little walk in the freezing cold, where he tried to lift his leg on every tire around. The problem, we found out later, is that a semi had jack-knifed and was sitting across both lanes of traffic and was in a position where he couldn't move out of the way. So we were all waiting on a tow truck to come save the day. We did eventually get home, unload the car, and go to my parents for Christmas.
Saturday was the entire Carner family Christmas at my parent's house. It was quite an adventure getting there. We were going to take my car, which is a little SUV, but does not have 4-wheel drive. We backed out of the driveway, and as we started to try and drive up our street, we slid about 3 houses back. We were stuck. A little while later, our neighbors helped us get the car back into our driveway, and we were going to drive the Jeep instead. It hadn't been driven in a while, so Drew had to work on it for a little bit to get it running. It didn't have insurance or a current tag, and Drew was convinced he was getting arrested for driving it. It started over heating two different times on our normally 20 minute drive and we had to pull over to let it cool down. We then had to stop at WalMart, who had apparently not yet cleared their parking lot, and almost got into 3 different wrecks while in the parking lot. After we got what we needed, we headed back out. 3 hours after beginning our journey, we finally made it. Needless to say, we were both a little irritated. But Christmas was great and we had a lot of fun.
Sunday, we decided to not even chance the roads and had my dad come pick us up for our next-to-the-last Christmas. We went to my aunt Kathy's house to celebrate with my mom's family. My cousin has a 2 year old little boy name Jaden, and Drew and I spent most of our time playing with the new toys he got from Santa. You should have seen Drew playing with Jaden's linkin' logs, he was so serious and all about it, it was too cute. Sunday night Drew and I were tired from all the traveling and excitement, so we just hung out at home and went to bed early.
Monday was our last Christmas celebration with my aunt Kemo and Katie. We went to mom and dad's, ate pizza for dinner, watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (another tradition) and openend presents. We love Kemo and Katie and hanging out with them is always a good time.
Tuesday and Wednesday were, thankfully, pretty uneventful. Thursday was New Year's Eve, and my third and final wreck of 2009. We had been using my dad's Jeep due to the lack of tag on ours. The weather and roads were finally pretty clear, so we were returning the Jeep on our way to my cousin's house for the New Year's festivities. Drew drove the Jeep to Glenpool, and I followed him in my car. Mistake #1- after dropping off the Jeep, I just said I would drive since I was already in the driver seat of my car. We were pulling out of Keifer when I hit the black ice. Mistake #2- turning into the spin like I have always been told. My car started spinning left, so I turned the wheel left. But, because the other lane of traffic was dry, this turned out to not be such a good idea. When my car hit the dry pavement in the other lane, it turned us around so that we were facing opposite of our original direction. Then we hit the grass. Mistake #3- keeping on the brakes. We slid sideways down the hill straight for a ravine bordered by trees. I grabbed Drew's arm and said "What do I do?" His response- "Just stand still." What? That in no way helps me! We stopped about 4 feet from the tree line. It is by the grace of God and His grace alone that neither of us nor my car were damaged in any way. If I had had new tires on my car (which I need) chances are, when I hit the dry pavement, the new tires wouldn't have slid like mine did and we would have flipped. It had finally warmed up the past couple of days which caused a lot of the snow to melt and the ground to be very muddy. If we hadn't have the mud, we would have hit frozen ground, and instead of sliding down the ditch, we probably would have flipped. The back end of my car came around more than 180 degrees so we were kinda sliding down the hill at an angle. If we would have been perfectly sideways, we probably would have flipped. So as scary as it was, God saved us, no doubt about it. We called my dad and he brought chains and was able to hook up to us from the road and pull us out. We went on to the New Year's Eve party and had a good time, even if I did fall asleep on the couch at about 1:30am :) My new year's resolution? No car wrecks in 2010.
The rest of the weekend went by just fine, until Sunday night. I got a call at about 9pm that my aunt and uncles German foreign exchange student had taken her own life in their driveway. I was in shock. Janne (pronounced Yanna) was the sweetest girl and none of us had any idea how unhappy she was. Drew and I offered to keep our little cousins, ages 6 and 3, to help out in any way we could. We had a "No Boys Allowed, Girls Club" sleepover. Those girls have way more stamina than me and we were up until 4am. We had a fun night, but it wasn't enough to erase the reality that Janne was gone. My aunt and uncle are really strugling through this, and it breaks my heart to see them hurt. My aunt ended up having a stress induced heart attack Tuesday night from all of this. Yesterday (Wednesday) was her memorial service. Two of her teachers spoke, one of her friends spoke, and a letter my aunt and uncle wrote her as if it were the summer after she left was read. It was very sad, but helped us forget the tragedy as we listened to their funny stories about Janne. It is hearbreaking, and will take time for my aunt and uncle to recover, and I continue to pray (and ask you to join me) for peace and comfort for both family and Janne's family back in Germany.
Lastly for this post, I have decided to take a study course for the MCAT. It starts next week and is every Tuesday and Thursday with some Friday's and Saturday's thrown in until April 6th. So I'm hoping I survive the class and that it raises my MCAT score because the school has told me it's the one thing keeping me out. Wish me luck!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Here Lately...
Whew, I have been one busy girl here lately. I'll start with our adventures over the Christmas holiday.
Posted by Sarah at 2:33 PM 1 comments


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Breaking Camp
- 2004 1 Mar
Just three years ago, he was expressing rage toward God over the death of his young wife. Now, after some much-needed healing, Jeremy Camp is in love again and releasing a worship album he started years earlier.
"I would read about how God healed in the Gospels, and I would throw my Bible across the room. I questioned whether God is a loving God. In frustration, I would say, 'I don't want to share in Your faithfulness because I don't think You are faithful.' So many times I would pound on my bed because I wanted to punch something. The hardest part was trying to understand why she had to suffer. We would watch her cringe and cry because of the pain," says BEC Recordings artist Jeremy Camp on seeing his wife, Melissa, die from cancer.
The story, a large part of Camp's testimony, began when he met Melissa at an outdoor Bible study on the campus of Palomar College in California. Camp had moved to north San Diego County after earning an associate of theology degree from Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta, California. Working as a bagger at Vons Grocery for several months, the budding artist knew his future was more than "paper or plastic;" but he felt no direction other than to stay put. Camp was leading worship at the time, which is how he ended up at the Palomar Bible study.
"You should have seen how Melissa worshiped God," says Camp, who admits he really should have been focused on leading worship rather than checking out the girls in the group. "I tried to keep my distance until I realized my friend [who was also interested in her] didn't have a chance."
After dating for a while, the couple actually separated for a few months when Camp got the call that Melissa was hospitalized because of cancer. Camp, whose grandmother was a lung cancer survivor, had faith the cancer could be beaten. Reunited at her side, he provided encouragement and support; and after it seemed the cancer went into remission, the pair got engaged. Sadly, the celebration didn't last long as the cancer came back, requiring a hysterectomy.
"We were crushed," recalls Camp. "At a young age, there was no hope of our ever having children." But, shockingly, when the doctors began the surgery on Melissa, they found the cancer had disappeared. "We were convinced this must be God," he continues. "It was the most amazing time of my life. Then, right after we got married, the cancer came back rampantly. There was nothing the doctors could do."
Melissa passed away on Feb. 5, 2001, and Camp felt broken and betrayed. He confesses, "God gave us this hope that we would have children, and then everything was taken away. We literally had thousands of people around the world praying for her. We all believed she would be healed. I truly thought we had confirmation. When she died, I just didn't get it."
During those difficult times, Camp talked to countless people in search of answers. One pastor asked if he'd prayed, believed and done everything he could, which, of course, he had. The pastor then remarked that Camp could take heart because if God took her despite all his pleas, He definitely had a reason. Camp reflects, "It really made sense. I found rest in knowing that God sees the beginning and the end, and there really was a reason why."
The 26-year-old now finds himself on the other side, as people traumatized by cancer come to him looking for answers. His response? "You literally have to take it a day at a time. You say, 'God, I don't know how I'm going to get through tomorrow or even the next hour, but I need the strength.' You have to rest in the fact that God is a big God, and He's in control. God didn't make this happen, and it's not punishment for anything. It's simply something God has a reason to allow."
While Camp delivered a heartfelt tribute to his late wife with "Stay," his new release, "Carried Me - The Worship Project" (BEC), offers powerful praise and worship inspired by the "valleys" he's overcome. Remarkably, Camp is already in the studio again, and fans can expect his next rock album in the fall of 2004. It's still a little while in the making, but Camp already has a title in mind.
"I wrote a song for the new album about what God has done in my life," says Camp, who hits the road with Newsboys and Rebecca St. James in April. "With how much God's shown me and expressed in my life, I'm thinking about titling the album after the song. It's called 'Restored.'"
In the meantime, he's focusing on the next chapter of his life as well as his worship album's release. "'Carried Me' is like a breath of fresh air for me," says Camp. "I've been through this hard time, and now here's a worship album to express how grateful I am for all that's happened since."
And quite a bit has happened in the months and years since his wife's death. This rocker made a grand entrance into the music industry with his 2002 debut. "Stay" yielded such radio hits as "Understand," "Take My Life" and "I Still Believe," the latter of which made the "WOW Hits 2004" (Sparrow) collection.
On top of that, the singer/songwriter married former The Benjamin Gate lead singer Adrienne Liesching last December and recently moved back to Camp's home state of Indiana. Camp and Liesching met in the fall of 2002 as tour mates on the "Festival con Dios" tour. Liesching, who seriously sprained her ankle early in the tour, limped around on crutches; and Camp introduced himself to offer encouragement. Recalling what happened next, he says, "We talked about what God was doing, and I saw her grow spiritually on the tour. Pretty soon, I was looking around for her and wanting to see her all the time. I eventually started liking her, which was something I really couldn't deal with at that point. I had all these guilty feelings because of Melissa."
For a time, Camp tried to distance himself but soon realized he had to move forward with his personal life. He continues, "After the tour, we started talking a lot and getting to know each other really well. I started feeling that God brought her into my life. Early last year, we 'knew'; and we got engaged in April."
But it wasn't all roses, as the couple faced some unique challenges in their relationship. For one, Melissa's story makes up the major part of Camp's testimony; and, despite all the circumstances, even the most spiritually strong female might feel insecure hearing her boyfriend praise his late wife each night. "When we first started [dating], it was difficult for her to hear how amazing Melissa was," admits Camp. "Adrienne said, 'Melissa was so amazing, and I don't feel that I'm that amazing woman of God.' I just assured her that she is. I love Adrienne, and her heart has been an encouragement to me. Really, it's not even an issue. She loves what God is doing through my past experiences."
It's those past experiences that Camp celebrates on "Carried Me" as he returns to his roots as a worship leader. Despite the industry trend, "Carried Me" - which includes Camp-penned originals, songs written by friends and reworked standards - is not a worship album born out of marketing meetings. In reality, the singer originally signed to BEC Recordings to do a worship album, namely the label's next installment in the "Any Given Day" series. However, as Camp started working on the project, the label decided to pursue a multi-album deal and opted to release "Stay" first.
"I've done worship all my life, whether in concert or in church; and people always asked me to do a worship album," says Camp. "I put a lot of passion into this album because it's something I've always loved."
© 2004 CCM Magazine. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Click here to subscribe.

subset: commoncrawl


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A pirated Vargas Llosa novel bought in Lima, Peru in 2010, that went on sale a week before the official version arrived in bookshops.
On Aug 17th at Printed Matter in New York, The Piracy Project is holding a panel selecting books from the HELP/LESS exhibition to include in their collection, along with Rhizome editor Joanne McNeil, Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento (Clancco), David Senior (MoMA Library), and Anthony Huberman from the Artist's Institute. The following day, they will host a workshop making copies of the books selected to go back to their library in London:
The Piracy Project (Andrea Francke & AND Publishing) will host a panel discussion and book pirating session on August 17th, 6-8, and Saturday August 18th, 3-7PM, respectively.
In a public presentation/discussion, Andrea Francke and Eva Marie Weinmayr will introduce The Piracy Project. Panelists Joanne McNeil (Rhizome), Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento (Clancco) and David Senior (MoMA Library) and will present a selection of books from the exhibition that they would like to see inducted into the Piracy Project library, negotiating concepts of originality, copying, moral issues and taste as they defend their selections. At the end of the conversation, 3 books will be chosen as the winners.
On the following day, Saturday, August 18th, Eva and Andrea will make copies of the winning books to bring back to London to add to their collection. Anyone who would like to help us in the process of making the books is invited to join and find out more about the project.
right: No se lo digas a nadie by Jaime Bayly; left pirated copy with two extra chapters added by an anonymous writer.
Check out the essay The Piracy Project contributed to Rhizome last spring, The Impermanent Book:
In the context of the Piracy Project, which we initiated ...


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Vancouver Whitecaps FC have plenty of time to prepare for the last home match of the regular on October 21 versus rivals Portland Timbers. A win will see the 'Caps become the first Canadian team to reach the Major League Soccer playoffs.
Martin Rennie's squad is coming off a 4-0 victory versus Chivas USA on October 3, and they are using this extended time (due to an international break for FIFA World Cup qualifying) to work on some important things in training and get some key players back from injury.
The confidence is high and the players are looking forward to a playoff atmosphere at BC Place.
Let's make it happen!


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It's official. Dodgers sign J.P. Howell.
The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced the signing of left-handed reliever J.P. Howell to a one-year contract. General Manager Ned Colletti made the announcement.
"J.P. adds to our bullpen, especially from the left side," said Colletti. "He provides Don with additional choices of someone who has pitched at a high level in very competitive situations."
Howell, 29, went 1-0 with a 3.04 ERA in 55 appearances with Tampa Bay last season, holding opponents to a .223 batting average. He limited left-handed hitters to a .200 batting average (17-for-85) and held first batters to a .213 mark (10-for-47). Howell posted a streak of 27.1 consecutive scoreless innings in 24 appearances from June 14-Aug. 30, which was the fifth-lowest streak in the Majors in 2012 and also established a Tampa Bay club record.
Since 2008, Howell ranks seventh in the American League (min. 200 games) with a .209 opponents' batting average and places 18th during that time with a 3.08 ERA. The Modesto, CA native has averaged more than a strikeout per inning in that span with 239 strikeouts and only 112 walks in 237.0 innings.
The seven-year Major League veteran has a 21-23 career record with a 4.42 ERA in 267 games (33 starts) with Kansas City (2005) and Tampa Bay (2006-12). In his career, he's averaged 8.4 strikeouts per 9.0 innings and allowed just 34 of 136 inherited runners to score (25%). Howell has appeared in 13 postseason games in his career, posting a 3.00 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 12.0 innings, and also made three scoreless appearances (3.1 IP) for Team USA in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
The 6-foot, 190-pounder was originally selected by Kansas City in the first round (31st overall) of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft and signed by current Dodger scout Chet Sergo. The Jesuit High School graduate (Carmichael, CA) originally attended the University of Southern California before transferring to the University of Texas. Howell and his wife, Heather, reside in St. Petersburg, FL.
Monday, January 7, 2013
It's Official - Dodgers Sign J.P. Howell
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Insurance Fraud and Abuse:
A Very Serious Problem
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Fraud and abuse are widespread and very costly to America's health-care system. Fraud involves intentional deception or misrepresentation intended to result in an unauthorized benefit. An example would be billing for services that are not rendered. Abuse involves charging for services that are not medically necessary, do not conform to professionally recognized standards, or are unfairly priced. An example would be performing a laboratory test on large numbers of patients when only a few should have it. Abuse may be similar to fraud except that it is not possible to establish that the abusive acts were done with an intent to deceive the insurer.
Although no precise dollar amount can be determined, some authorities contend that insurance fraud constitutes a $100-billion-a-year problem. The United States Goverment Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that $1 out of every $7 spent on Medicare is lost to fraud and abuse and that in 1998 alone, Medicare lost nearly $12 billion to fraudulent or unnecessary claims [1].
Type of Fraud and Abuse
False claim schemes are the most common type of health insurance fraud. The goal in these schemes is to obtain undeserved payment for a claim or series of claims [2]. Such schemes include any of the following when done deliberately for financial gain:
- Billing for services, procedures, and/or supplies that were not provided.
- Misrepresentation of what was provided; when it was provided; the condition or diagnosis; the charges involved; and/or the identity of the provider recipient.
- Providing unnecessary services or ordering unnecessary tests [3].
Many insurance policies cover a percentage of the physician's "usual" fee. Some physicians charge insured patients more than uninsured ones but represent to the insurance companies that the higher fee is the usual one. This practice is illegal. It is also illegal to routinely excuse patients from copayments and deductibles. (A copayment is a fixed dollar amount paid whenever an insured person receives specified health-care services. A deductible is the amount that must be paid before the insurance company starts paying.) It is legal to waive a fee for people with a genuine financial hardship, but it is not legal to provide completely free care or discounts to all patients or to collect only from those who have insurance. Studies have shown that if patients are required to pay for even a small portion of their care they will be better consumers and select items or services because they are medically needed rather than because they are free. Routine waivers thus raise overall health costs. They are considered fraudulent because averaging them with the doctor's full fees would make the "usual" fees lower than the amounts actually billed for.
Other illegal procedures include:
- Charging for a service that was not performed.
- Unbundling of claims: Billing separately for procedures that normally are covered by a single fee. An example would be a podiatrist who operates on three toes and submits claims for three separate operations.
- Double billing: Charging more than once for the same service.
- Upcoding: Charging for a more complex service than was performed. This usually involves billing for longer or more complex office visits (for example, charging for a comprehensive visit when the patient was seen only briefly), but it also can involve charging for a more complex procedure than was performed or for more expensive equipment than was delivered. Medicare documentation guidelines describe what the various levels of service should involve [4].
- Miscoding: Using a code number that does not apply to the procedure.
- Kickbacks: Receiving payment or other benefit for making a referral. Indirect kickbacks can involve overpayment for something of value. For example, a supplier whose business depends on physician referrals may pay excessive rent to physicians who own the premises and refer patients. Another example would be a mobile testing service that performs diagnostic tests in a doctor's office. Kickbacks can distort medical decision-making, cause overutilization, increase costs, and result in unfair competition by freezing out competitors who are unwilling to pay kickbacks. They can also adversely affect the quality of patient care by encouraging physicians to order services or recommend supplies based on profit rather than the patients' best medical interests. In 2000, the Office of the Inspector General issued a fraud alert warning against kickbacks disguised as rental payments [5].
Criminals sometimes obtain Medicare numbers for fraudulent billing by conducting a health survey, offering a free "health screening" test, paying beneficiaries for their number, obtaining beneficiary lists from nursing homes or boarding facilities, or offering "free" services, food, or supplies to beneficiaries.
Excessive or Inappropriate Testing
Many standard tests can be useful in some situations but not in others. The key question in judging whether a diagnostic test is necessary is whether the results will influence the management of the patient. Billing for inappropriate tests—both standard and nonstandard—appears to be much more common among chiropractors and joint chiropractic/medical practices than among other health-care providers. The commonly abused tests include:
- Computerized inclinometry: Inclinometry is a procedure that measures joint flexibility. Inclinometer testing may be useful if precise range-of-motion measurements are needed for a disability evaluation, but routine or repeated measurements "to gauge a patient's progress" are not appropriate [6].
- Nerve conduction studies: These tests can provide valuable information about the status of nerve function in various degenerative diseases and in some cases of injury [7]. However, "personal injury mills" often use them inappropriately "to "follow the progress" of their patients.
- Surface electromyography: This test, which measures the electrical activity of muscles, can be useful for analyzing certain types of performance in the workplace. However, some chiropractors claim that the test enables them to screen patients for "subluxations" and to follow their progress. This usage is invalid [6].
- Thermography: Thermographic devices portray small temperature differences between sides of the body as images. Chiropractors who use thermography typically claim that it can detect nerve impingements or "nerve irritation" and is useful for monitoring the effect of chiropractic adjustments on subluxations. These uses are not appropriate [6].
- Ultrasound screening: Diagnostic ultrasound procedures have many legitimate uses. However, ultrasonography is not appropriate for "diagnosing muscle spasm or inflammation" or for following the progress of patients treated for back pain [6].
- Unnecessary x-rays: X-rays examinations can be important to look for conditions that require medical referral. However, it is not appropriate for chiropractors to routinely x-ray every patient to look for "subluxations" or to "measure the progress" of patients who undergo spinal manipulation [6].
- Spinal videofluoroscopy: This procedure produces and records x-ray pictures of the spinal joints that show the extent to which joint motion is restricted. For practical purposes, however, simply physical examination procedures (such as asking the patient to bend) provide enough information to guide the patient's treatment [6].
Many insurance administrators are concerned about chiropractic claims for "maintenance care" (periodic examination and "spinal adjustment" of symptom-free patients) , which is not a covered service. To detect such care, many companies automatically review claims for more than 12 visits. In 1999, the U.S. Inspector General recommended automatic review after no more than 12 visits for Medicare recipients [8]. Some chiropractors attempt to avoid review by issuing a new diagnosis after the 12th visit.
Personal Injury Mills
Many instances have been discovered in which corrupt attorneys and health-care providers (usually chiropractors or chiropractic/medical clinics) combine to bill insurance companies for nonexistent or minor injuries. The typical scam includes "cappers" or "runners" who are paid to recruit legitimate or fake auto accident victims or worker's compensation claimants. Victims are commonly told they need multiple visits. The providers fabricate diagnoses and reports and commonly provide expensive but unnecessary services. The lawyers then initiate negotiations on settlements based upon these fraudulent or exaggerated medical claims. The claimants may be unwitting victims or knowing participants who receive payment for their involvement [9]. Mill activity can be suspected when claims are submitted for many unrelated individuals who receive similar treatment from a small number of providers.
Quackery-Related Miscoding
In processing claims, insurance companies rely mainly on diagnostic and procedural codes recorded on the claim forms. Their computers are programmed to detect services that are not covered. Most insurance policies exclude nonstandard or experimental methods. To help boost their income, many nonstandard practitioners misrepresent what they do. They may also misrepresent their diagnosis. For example:
- Brief or intermediate-length visits may be coded as lengthy or comprehensive visits.
- Patients receiving chelation therapy may be falsely diagnosed as suffering from lead poisoning; and the chelation may be billed as "infusion therapy" or simply an office visit [10].
- The administration of quack cancer remedies may be billed as "chemotherapy."
- Live-cell analysis may be billed as one or more tests for vitamin deficiency.
- Nonstandard allergy tests may be represented as standard ones.
- Services not covered because they were performed outside of the United States may be billed as though they were performed within the United States.
Other Overbilling Schemes
In 2000, a Government Accounting Office (GAO) official told a Congressional committee how four other types of schemes are carried out:
- In "rent-a-patient" schemes, organizations pay ("rent") individuals to go to clinics for unnecessary diagnostic tests and cursory examinations. Licensed physicians sometimes participate in the rent-a-patient scheme. Insurers are billed for those services and often for other services or medical equipment never provided. In a variation of this scheme, perpetrators merely buy individual health care insurance identification numbers for cash.
- In "pill mill" schemes, separate health care individuals and entities—usually including a pharmacy—collude to generate a flood of fraudulent claims that Medicaid pays. After a prescription is filled, the beneficiary sells the medication to pill buyers on the street who then sell the drugs back to the pharmacy.
- "Drop box" schemes use a private mailbox facility as the fraudulent health care entity's address, with the entity's "suite" number actually being its mailbox number. The fraudulent entity then uses the address to submit fraudulent insurance claims and to receive insurance checks. For example, while the insurer sends payments to "Suite 478" at a certain address, payments are actually going to "Box 478" at a privately owned mailbox facility. The perpetrator then retrieves the checks and deposits them into a commercial bank account..
- Third-party billing schemes revolve around a third-party biller—who may or may not be part of the scheme—who prepares and remits claims for health care providers. The third-party biller may add claims without the providers' knowledge and keeping the remittances [11].
Bogus Health Insurance Companies
The GAO has issued two reports concerning the sale of health insurance plans that lack legal authorization. These plans place the buyer at risk for financial disaster if serious illness strikes. One report focuses on consumer vulnerability [12]. The other notes that from 2000 to 2002, 144 unauthorized entities enrolled at least 15,000 employers and more than 200,000 policyholders who got stuck for over $200 million in unpaid claims [13]. The investigatirs found that many of the entitles bore names similar to those of legitimate companies. In response to the report, the Health Insurance Institute of America is again urging the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to create an online database of licensed health insurance companies so that anyone can easily check the legitimacy of companies offering health insurance products. Meanwhile, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud offers ten warning signs of a possible swindle:
- The coverage costs 25 percent or more below the norm, yet promises generous benefits and a large provider network.
- The plan readily accepts people with serious illnesses and other medical conditions that other plans normally reject.
- The insurance has few or no underwriting guidelines—the agent or rep appears almost too eager to sign you up.
- You're approached by an insurance agent, phone or direct mail. Honest group plans normally are sponsored by your employer—and aren't sold directly to individuals.
- The plan isn't licensed in your state, and the agent (falsely) assures you the federal ERISA law exempts the plan from state licensing.
- The plan seems like insurance, but the agent or rep avoids calling "insurance," and instead uses evasive terms such as "benefits."
- The agent or rep doesn't have clear answers to your questions, seems ill-informed, or avoids sharing information.
- You've never heard of that health insurance company—and nobody else has, either.
- You have to join an "association" or "union" to obtain the health coverage. But you get no voting rights, receive no bylaws or other material, and aren't involved in the group's activities.
- Your hospital keeps calling you to complain that your health plan isn't paying your medical bills. Often the plan's reps keep making flimsy excuses, or stop returning phone calls altogether [14].
Viatical Fraud
In a viatical settlement transactions, people with terminal illnesses assign their life insurance policies to viatical settlement companies in exchange for a percentage of the policy's face value [15]. The company, in turn, may sell the policy to a third-party investor. The company or the investor then becomes the beneficiary to the policy, pays the premiums, and collects the face value of the policy after the original policyholder dies. Fraud occurs when agents recruit terminally ill people to apply for multiple policies. They misrepresent the truth and answer "no" to all of the medical questions. Healthy impostors then undergo the medical evaluation. In many cases, the insurance agent who issues the policy is a party to the scheme. The agent or one applicant may even submit the same application to many insurance companies. Viatical settlement companies then purchase the policies and sell them to unsuspecting third-party investors. The insurance industry is the biggest victim of this fraud [16]. Some investors receive nothing in return for their "guaranteed" investment.
Anti-Fraud Programs
Several large insurance companies have joined forces through the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association to develop sophisticated computer systems to detect suspicious billing patterns. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) each have assigned hundreds of special agents to health-fraud projects. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, a public advocacy and educational organization founded in 1993, includes consumers as well as government agencies and insurers.
The Omnibus Consolidated Appropriation Act of 1997 authorized a Health Care Anti-Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Community Volunteer Demonstration Program to further reduce fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The program enrolled thousands of retired accountants, health professionals, investigators, teachers, and other community volunteers to help Medicare beneficiaries and others to detect and report fraud, waste, and abuse. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 funded a similar program that trained community agency workers [17]. This act also gave the U.S. Inspector General jurisdiction over private insurance plans as well as public ones.
The Inspector General's office has recovered over a billion dollars through fines and settlements. Its Operation Restore Trust, which began in 1995, was a joint federal-state program aimed at fraud, waste, and abuse in three high-growth areas of Medicare and Medicaid: home health agencies, nursing homes, and durable medical equipment suppliers. The questionable activities included:
- Billing for advanced life support services when basic life support was provided. Documentation may be falsified to indicate a patient needed oxygen—which is a key indicator in establishing medical necessity for advanced life support.
- Billing for larger amounts of drugs than are dispensed; or billing for brand-name drugs when less expensive generic versions are dispensed.
- Billing for more miles than traveled for transportation.
- Falsification of documentation to substantiate the need for a transport from a hospital back to the patient's home. Medicare will only cover transport from hospital to home if the patient could not go by any other means.
Allstate Insurance Company announced that during 2004, judges and juries around the country awarded the company more than $30 million in damages resulting from insurance fraud schemes against the company—the result of a campaign Allstate began in 2001 to go after the pocketbooks of fraud perpetrators in court. Since that time, the company has gotten more than $55 million in judgments against criminals that range from individuals to sophisticated organized crime syndicates. Unfortunately, bankruptcies and money laundering make it difficult to collect such awards. In February 2005, Allstate reported that only $5.24 million out of the $30.81 million awarded in 2004 had been recovered [18].
What You Can Do
Many frauds can be detected by examining insurance payment reports to see whether they accurately reflect the services rendered. Suspicious reports involving a private insurer claim should be reported to the company's fraud department. Suspicious practices involving Medicare or other federal programs should be reported to the OIG Hotline by phone (1-800-368-5779) or e-mail.
Other Information Sources
- Aetna US. Healthcare Coverage Policy Bulletins
- American Association of Retired Persons
- Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
- How to Spot a Personal Injury Mill
- Medicare Fraud Prevention Tips
- Department of Justice Health Care Fraud Report (1997)
- Department of Justice Health Care Fraud Report (1998)
- Health Insurers' Anti-Fraud Programs Research Findings (1999)
- The Illusion of Group Health Insurance: Voluntary Associations
- Insurance Fraud Case Reports on Chirobase
- Medicare Coverage Issues Manual (lists many noncovered products and procedures)
- National Insurance Crime Bureau
- OIG Exclusions Database: (individuals/entities excluded from federally funded health-care programs)
- OIG Semi-Annual Reports
- Department of Justice Health Care Fraud Report, Fiscal Year 1998. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, 1999.
- BlueCross & BlueShield United of Wisconsin. What is health care fraud? Accessed Nov 30, 1999.
- Guidelines to health care fraud. Adopted by the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association Board of Governors, Nov 19, 1991.
- 1997 Documentation guidelines for evaluation and management services , Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 1997.
- Rental of space in physician offices by persons or entities to which physicians refer. OIG Special Fraud Alert, February 2000.
- Homola S. Inside Chiropractic: A Patient's Guide. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999.
- Campbell WW and others. Recommended policy for electrodiagnostic medicine. American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Sept 26, 1996.
- Brown JG. Utilization parameters for chiropractic treatments. Washington, DC: Office of the Inspector General, Nov 1999.
- Stern RA, Montana R. Identify patterns of medical provider fraud through data base graphic pattern. FDN Fraud Report, Nov 1999.
- Barrett S. Chelation therapy and insurance fraud. Quackwatch, May 8, 2000.
- Hast RH. Health care fraud: Schemes to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and private health care insurers. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives. GAO/T-OSI-00-15, July 25, 2000.
- Private health insurance: Employers and individuals are vulnerable to unauthorized or bogus entities selling coverage. #GAO-04-312, Feb 2004
- Private health insurance: Unauthorized or bogus entities have exploited employers and individuals seeking affordable coverage. #GAO-04-512T, March 3, 2004.
- Scam alert. Coalition Against Insurance Fraud Web site, accessed March 5, 2004.
- Viatical settlements. FTC, 1998.
- Kohtz DA. Viatical fraud. Quackwatch, Aug 16, 2000.
- Implementation of the Administration on Aging's health care fraud and abuse programs: 18-month outcomes. Washington, DC: Office of Evaluations and Inspections, Aug 1999.
- Fraudsters ordered to pay allstate more than $30 million in '04. Allstate news release, Feb 14, 2005.
This article was revised on January 10, 2006.


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Jesse Jackson Interview; Jobless Rate Jump
Aired April 5, 2008 - 13:00 ET
WHITFIELD: Topping our news, tragedy hits a high school band trip. One student is dead and dozens more are hurt after a chartered bus they were on -- that one -- tipped over and rolled over into a ditch along Interstate 94 outside of Minneapolis. No word on the cause. Band members from Pelican Heights High School in western Minnesota were on a trip to Chicago. Heavy rain is causing floods along Alabama's gulf coast, a number of streets in downtown Mobile are flooded and cars there are under water and many people had to be rescued. Authorities in Texas are looking for foster homes after removing 52 girls that were rescued from a ranch owned by polygamist Warren Jeffs. Officials believe that at least 18 were abused. A search warrant has been issued for a 50-year-old man who allegedly fathered a child with one of the young ladies who is just 16. We will update your top stories at the bottom of the hour, and now it is time for YOUR MONEY. ALI VELSHI, CNN HOST, YOUR MONEY: Welcome to YOUR MONEY where we look at how the news of the week affects your wallet. I'm Ali Velshi. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST, YOUR MONEY: And I'm Christine Romans. Coming up on today's program job losses mount, unemployment rises, find out how it affects you whether you have a job or want one. VELSHI: Plus the economic divide, Reverend Jesse Jackson joins us with his take on the credit crisis and how it is affecting the African American community. ROMANS: Great conversation. And a life line for procrastinators. We are going to send it to you, we will have a tax attorney here to answer your tax questions and you don't have much time left. April 15th is the deadline. Have you done it yet? VELSHI: No. ROMANS: We have somebody to help you out personally. VELSHI: Let's talk about something else. And saved by the unemployment rate. U.S. employers cut jobs for the third straight month. ROMANS: And unemployment rate hits a three-year high. And whether you have a secure job or not and wanting to switch industries, or careers, these numbers matter to you. VELSHI: And yes, to the entire economy. Allen Chernoff joins us now is here to break it down for us at an unemployment office. Allan. ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, you know we've been talking about whether or not there is a recession right now and the chairman of the Federal Reserves said possibly, well people who are out of work definitely feel like we are in recession and more and more people are out of work. Tens of thousands in fact, during the month of March, 80,000 jobs lost around the nation. That is a net number, including the number that actually was hired. And since the beginning of the year, we have lost as a nation near one quarter of a million jobs. So you factor that in and the unemployment rate is 5.1 percent and this is far worse than economists had forecast and indeed the chairman of the Federal Reserve admitted this very week when he said that unemployment is likely to keep on rising and to go higher. So we may not technically be in a recession yet, but let me tell you, millions of Americans are sure that we are in a recession right now, and the jobs picture is the main reason why. ROMANS: Allen, what are some of the economists telling me in their notes and in their sort of response to what happened on Friday, they are saying that the shift was so quick from last year to this year from job growth to job loss this year with 250,000 jobs you said in the first quarter gone. And there was so much help from the government job growth for much of the late last year as well and that also masks what was actual weakness as we were ending last year. CHERNOFF: Indeed, Christine. If it hadn't been for government hiring in the past month, the nation would have lost 100,000 jobs. The only bright pictures we have got here is a little bit of hiring on the government side. Also, hiring in health services and as well leisure and hospitality, but construction, forget about it. Losing nearly 50,000 jobs. Manufacturing that is a long term decline, so many parts of the economy are shedding jobs, and unfortunately, that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. VELSHI: Allan, thank you. We will continue to break down this week's jobs report and what it means for the future of your job and your wallet. We are joined from Washington by Peter Morici, he a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and I gave you a promotion, peter. ROMANS: He is the president of something. VELSHI: Well, here, we have Lakshman Achuthan managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, and you two heard what we were talking to Allan about, when you look at these numbers the average person their job is their job so we are not entirely true what a loss of 80,000 jobs means or quarter of a million jobs in the beginning of the year, but Lach, why do we care about how many jobs are created or loss o lost in a month? LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INST: Well, this is a key mechanism that generates a recession. We have job losses and incomes go down and sales goes down and production goes down and this whole spiral, and what is a recession, and that is why the policy maker can't wave a wand and say it will go away. They have no control over this; it is the Achilles heel as it were of the free market economy. This is a great system and this is the one weakness when the downward spiral gets under way. So even if you don't lose your job, and most people are working, right? This starts to impact you. Your psychology and you pull back a little bit and because you are a little weary and you are not as carefree as you were because you know somebody who lost their job, and things that are discretionary in particular come under pressure. The affordable luxuries. Your latte from Starbucks maybe a little too, too much of a frivolous thing right now and you go for the deli, coffee at the deli. ROMANS: A couple of career experts were telling me earlier this week that this is not the time to be telecommuting everyday of the week and not the time to hang away. And this is the time to hang around the printer and talking to your boss and doing networking and making sure that you are seen. Let me ask you, Peter, if you have the job in your industry, what is the feeling out there about how much more job loss we are going to have and how deep it will be and are hiring managers are under a lot of pressure to cut the bottom 10 percent? What is happening out there? PETER MORICI, UNIV. OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Well, if we look at the job numbers in the context of the other numbers. Retail sales falling since Thanksgiving and industrial production has been slacking off. The only thing that is really strong right now is the government and those areas that tend to be more immune and in particular health care. Right now the job market is poor. If you want to switch jobs, you will find that that 80,000 number is bigger than it look, which will mean it is hard to switch jobs or that it will improve your circumstances and negotiated position with regard to wages is very poor. If you are in certain segments of the economy like manufacturing here in these Bush years, manufacturing has shed 3.7 million jobs. ROMANS: And those are good paying jobs, right, peter? The jobs that we are adding are like hotel workers and food services. So health care workers pay well, but some don't. MORICI: Well, where are we losing them? Construction and manufacturing with which is where traditionally the front line workers go to accomplish middle-class status. It is a terrible situation. ACHUTHAN: And you see what is pushing us and tipping us into recession and what happened right? We were cruising along, we were mottling along and what happened? Well, what happened is that the nonfinancial services sector which is like the secret weapon of the U.S. economy, where 5 of 8 of us work went into a sharp downturn so you are seeing in the numbers today and Friday's numbers that you are seeing that business services, and these are like really good solid jobs, we are losing those, and that is a big shift in the makeup of this jobs report. MORICI: Well, Peter, I want to point out, if I can, this is not a natural dynamic in the economy. We have had a large and growing trade deficit in recent years and we have chosen to deal with it by having people borrow out of money to keep the consumption up, and the borrowing has run out and the banks have essentially collapsed and public policy has something to do with it. It is allowing lack of regulation in banking industry. VELSHI: So since I have elevated you to president, tell us what the presidential candidates should do and what policy changes should we make at this point to help Americans down the road next year and two years and five years. MORICI: Well, the best thing we can do is reducing the trade deficit and get the value of the dollar and the yen more balanced and if not, cancel the transactions. The banks can't go into the bond market to bundle the mortgages they made into securities because the fixed income investors don't trust them. ACHUTHAN: And another aspect here is that everybody is focusing on what, what are you going to do? Give me more money or regulation and do that, so that is missing the point. The big issue here is timing. When a business cycle recession is eight months' long and the debate on what to do about it is six months' long, you missed the wave. OK. That is the issue. These guys, and this is a nonpartisan comment, it is the administration and Congress and the Fed. Everybody dawdled when the turning point was occurring and as a result instead of preventing a recession and when recessions happen, things that are bad get worse. So housing downturn gets worse and companies on the edge that are going to fail, they tend to fail. VELSHI: Right. ACHUTHAN: So this is a very expensive waste of moment of time here. VELSHI: It has to be done now. ACHUTHAN: And yeah, the stimulus package is going to be a little blip where it could have avoided the recession, and now it does a gentle mitigation of it. ROMANS: Bottom lines both of you, more job losses ahead? Will we see more job losses, Peter? MORICI: Absolutely. We are headed for a very bad year. Bernanke was saying that perhaps we will have some negative growth the first half. We will have negative growth the first half, but the question is how much longer does this continues and if he can't get the banks fixed, we will have job losses through the year. ACHUTHAN: Yes, and you have to look at the leading indicator and one leading indicator is stimulus and we see it pushing to the upside so eventually it will turn, but we need to see the corporate profits turn and housing development, and consumer and investment psychology improving. VELSHI: And a point that Peter made earlier is that people turn to the consumer and manufacturing jobs to get themselves into the middle-class and we will come back later on with a specific discussion if you are in that industry, what do you have to look at. ROMANS: And thank you. Up next on YOUR MONEY a financial industry legend explains how to fix Wall Street, but maybe not fixing the current financial crises. We will be back with that. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Well, it is the most ambitious overhaul since the great depression meant to modernize the banking oversight in this country and consolidating power in the Federal Reserve. ROMANS: It will take years to enact and it doesn't address the homeowners today who are struggling to hang on to their homes. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS (voice over): From the treasury secretary a 218-page blueprint to modernize financial market regulation. HENRY PAULSON, TREASURY SECRETARY: Government has a responsibility to make sure that the financial system is regulated effectively. And in this area, we can do a better job. ROMANS: A better job he says by streamlining an alphabet soup of financial regulators and merging the American Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodities Future Trade Commission. Folding the office of thrift supervision to the Comptroller of the Currency. And creating SANCHEZ: new federal commission to oversee mortgages. Paulson's blueprint is careful not to advocate more regulation, but instead, updating a creaky system. PAULSON: I am not suggesting that more regulation is the answer or even more effective regulation can prevent the periods of financial market stress that seem to occur every five to ten years. ROMANS: Exactly why the critic say that the plan does not go far enough. The biggest complaint, it would give the Fed oversight of but not necessarily new power over investment banks like Bear Stearns, rescued by the Fed with taxpayer money. DEAN BAKER, CTR. FOR ECOM. AND POLICY RESEARCH: The investment banks are still basically off of the hook. It is clearly not intended to be more regulation and if anything in some ways it can be seen as less regulation. ROMANS: And it does not address the crises at hand today. LAWRENCE SUMMERS, FMR. TREASURY SECRETARY: It is some exaggeration, but we have the had the financial equivalent to hurricane Katrina here and the right priority is not talking about the organization of regulation at this moment. ROMANS: The proposal must be approved by Congress and could take years to become law. (END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: A lot of criticism that it won't help people right now, but it was never designed to do that and it started a year ago as an attempt led by Washington and by the financial industry to try to improve U.S. competiveness with the rest of the world, but one critic told me it looks like reform written by the bankers, Ali. VELSHI: Yeah, and it does come out at a time when most Americans are hoping that the message coming from the federal government is could you do something to help me now and to help us understand what is on the table and frankly what you should do as investors and homeowners we are joined by John Bogle he is the found of the Vanguard Group and probably one of the best known names around and author of the book called the "Battle of the Soul for Capitalism," and John, good to see you and thank you for being on the show with us. Your initial views on this reorganization of the way we regulate financial services in the country. How big of deal should we make on this? JOHN BOGLE, FOUNDER, THE VANGUARD GROUP: Well, it is extremely badly timed. We have a fire going on in the mortgage economy. Surely the financial regulatory system could have done more about it, but it will take years to implement this financial regulation and almost like a diverse their effort to throw out this 213-page blockbuster out there to take the market attention away from the real problem which is by and large on the financial side on mortgage instruments collateralized obligations and a dubious qualify and a large number of homeowners who are losing their homes, and that is the issue of the day and financial reform should take a back seat to that until a better time. ROMANS: OK. John, talk about the issue of the day and you have been in if business for a long time and founder of Vanguard and rank this for me, as we see this, rank it in your personal experience in the economy and market? BOGLE: Well, one interesting thing about taking the easy part of it which is the market. The market has taken all of this and the stock market has taken all of this with what I can describe as great equanimity and what has gone on in the last eight or nine months the stock market is 3 percent below where it was a year ago. Investors should be blessed to think that is all that has happened. There is decline from the high point to the low point of around 17 percent, but not everybody bought at the high or got out at the low, so the stock market seems to amble on. That concerns me a little bit, because I think that as part of the program said earlier, we are in for tough economic times. VELSHI: Thankfully, John, people like you went and invented products where you don't have to wait around and hope. You have been a friend of the investor for a very, very long time. I think that most of the viewers if they have investments it is through the 401(k) or the I.R.A. And while it is the ups and downs of the Dow, they are not buying or selling on a regular basis, what is your advice to someone who might think themselves sophisticated but are concerned about the next year or two, and what is your best advice for them to make decisions with respect to their investments right now? BOGLE: Well, my basic strategy is doing do something, just stand there. The reason I say that or the people I say that to are, and this is a critical distinction, Ali, and that is the distinction of the speculator and the investor investing in businesses and we have lost site of that because we are in a speck you la orgy where the turnovers of stocks in the U.S. is up to 280 percent a year and twice what it was in 1929 to the previous high year. And so, I don't know what to say to a speculator. To an investor, however, the one I want to not do something, just stand there, if you are very diversified, own all U.S. business or maybe all global business on the equity side, but very broadly diversified so that sectors in the market and in this decline this sector of the market has been by far the hardest hit and also have a little anchor of windward in the form of a bond position. For investors, small bond position, and for older and retired people, significant bond position and maybe 30, 35 percent of their total investments, and then weather the storm and hope and expect and I do expect that say in a ten-year time horizon and that is the time horizon that a investor and not speculator should be looking at, in that time horizon, we can be certain that the companies in the S&P 500 for example are going to be earning a lot more money then than they are today and that is what is going to drive the business results and drive the stock market returns. ROMANS: John Bogle if you are correct, so many more people will be sleeping better tonight. John Bogle, founder of Vanguard thank you so much for joining us sir and have a wonderful rest of the weekend sir. VELSHI: John Bogle has been right many, many times. You need a chance to pick up the latest book" Battle for the Sole Capitalism" it is a good read. Coming up after the break help could be finally on the way for homeowners what you need to know about the proposed Senate housing bill. Coming up next on YOUR MONEY. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Welcome back. Jennifer Westhoven is back with information on what is happening on the move in Washington about some sort of housing relief. VELSHI: Yeah, I can't keep track with a million things going on in Washington, hearings and plans and this is a Senate plan and it has something to do with housing. JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a Senate promise and they stood there and said, we will drop the party differences and get together and come up with a bill that helps homeowners. So here it is. Right. So this was a bill to help homeowners and if it becomes law, that means you could get a big tax credit to buy and fix up a home in foreclosure and local governments would get $4 billion the deal with the empty homes and they can become a crime risk and pull down the neighborhood prices, but much of the money seems to be for homes that are already lost. So yes, yeah, that might help the housing market overall, but does not help anyone who is trying to stay in their home and the bill has big tax breaks for corporations including the home builders. ROMANS: I wondered home builders and people who overbuilt in the first place and some of the folks who helped us to get into the mess in the first place, they must love this? WESTHOVEN: Well, that is a fair criticism and a lot of the homeowners' groups said what? What is in this bill for consumers and to help people? VELSHI: Well, we are talking about people facing foreclosure or higher mortgage rates and one of the unintended consequences is food problems and people going to the food bank and increased use of food stamps. WESTHOVEN: And let alone the sharply higher food prices that we are facing and all of the financial stress means a record number of Americans could be using food stamps to try to feed the families this year. This is a government report that forecasts 28 million people will be using food stamps to supplement their income by 2009. So this is really a sign that backs up the Fed chief's warning that maybe the economy is headed a recession. We see the prices for food and gas going up, up, up, while the job market and the housing market is getting worse. ROMANS: Bad combination if you are trying to run a family budget or if your family budget is completely out of whack and trying to figure out how to make it work. VELSHI: And if you are wondering about signs of recession all over the place, there do not seem to be signs of recession if you are trying to buy an iphone. I can't believe this story. I heard there were some shortages of iphones and people can't get them. WESTHOVEN: Or they are on a waiting list, about a week long which in this day and age is long. A lot of the Apple stores say they are out of iphones which started a whole speculation, and where are they? So we know there is a shortage and there is some talk that maybe a new version is on the way, and that sort of gained a lot of Apple enthusiasts talking, but it seems that more analysts say that this is all about outrageous strong demand coming from outside of the United States, and that there are literally buyers going from store to store and they buy every iphone to get their hands on an resell them for a huge profit overseas. If you are outside of the company, you are not restricted to the AT&T network and you can hack around for a while and use it and the dollar is so cheap, it is a bargain. VELSHI: And arbitrage on the iphone. ROMANS: You have one? VELSHI: I don't have one. ROMANS: You have one? VELSHI: have a pod. WESTHOVEN: Not until the corporates get on devices. VELSHI: Well, one for work and one for home, and two devises. ROMANS: Yes, two devices. VELSHI: Well good to see you Jennifer. Thank you. ROMANS: I still have a typewriter. Coming up we will talk to Rev. Jesse Jackson about the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, a leader in the struggle for economic equality in America. But first, this week, "Right on your Money." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS (voice over): Buying life insurance can be confusing. Some policies have six terms and others can be adjusted each year. "Money" Magazine's Walter Updegrave suggests a bare bone approach. WALTER UPDEGRAVE, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: For most people, the answer is a term policy, and that provides basic protection. There is no investment component it to, and the nice thing about this policy is that for a relatively small premium, you will get a large death benefit. ROMANS: And when deciding what amount, of life insurance to get Updegrave says Web sites like lifeline .org and telecom.cin and lifeline.org can help you. UPDEGRAVE: You go to put in the age and the type of policy you are interested in, and it will give you a list of policies with different premiums. ROMANS: Keep your budget and priorities in check. UPDEGRAVE: The idea with insurance is not to create a windfall if somebody should die, it is really to provide just enough protection so that the family can go on and maintain something close to their current lifestyle. (UNIDENTIFIED MALE): "Right on your Money" is sponsored by the personal advisers of Ameriprise Financials. Go to CNN.com/rightonyourmoney to learn what is financially right for your lifestyle and for more tips on managing your money. Pick up any of these magazines on newsstands now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. YOUR MONEY returns after a look at other stories in the news. Heavy rain putting parts of the Gulf Coast under water. The flash flooding in Mobile, Alabama brought on by a slow moving spring storm system. It left property damage and downed trees from Texas to Alabama. A chartered bus rolled over on Interstate 94, in Minnesota today, leaving one person dead. High schools students and their chaperones were returning home from a band trip to Chicago. At least three of the passengers are in critical condition. Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won last Saturday's presidential election. Out right and he is saying his party may not take part in a runoff called for by long term president Robert Mugabe. His government won't release election results are that is raising suspicious under Mugabe and he is trying to cling to power. Coming up at the top of the hour a new edition of CNN's BALLOT BOWL and now back to more of YOUR MONEY. ROMANS: This week marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King's message center on social justice and economic equality for all Americans. VELSHI: Today, that vision is threatened by the subprime mortgage crisis which is widening the wealth gap between blacks and whites. Joining us now is Reverend Jesse Jackson who is the founder and president of the Rainbow Coalition and he is outside of a hotel in Lorraine, Memphis, a place where Dr. King was murdered. And Rev. Jackson you were there on that day, you have followed this since that day, and you have said that the mortgage crises which you have been active in talking about is the greatest threat to African American wealth ever. REV. JESSIE JACKSON, FOUNDER, RAINBOW COALITION: Well, it is not just African American, but it is certainly that. The open housing act passed in 1968, which was a breakthrough for fair housing, but a law passed must be enforced and funded. Here the fair housing, the lending laws are not in force. You are having bankers running amok running without regulation. And then you have people who were victimized steering, and you have Attorney Jones from Alabama saying that blacks making $120,000 a year got steered into subprimes (INAUDIO). So to have them eligible for the subprime and got subprime, so the lack of enforcement on the law on the housing has cost like $250 billion in transfer of wealth because of the impact of this crises. ROMANS: So what can we do about it? What you have seen out of Washington, have you felt as though you are seeing enough to address this? And quickly enough or are we going the see, you know, housing wealth be sapped from the community unless something is done more quickly? JACKSON: Well, right now the focus is on stabilizing Wall Street and bailing out the lenders. There is no commitment yet to choose restructuring of loans over repossession of homes for example. If you had long term loans at a fixed rate, you could save many homes and therefore save the tax base. If I lose my house, seven houses are affected by that. So the tax base goes down, and then, when that happens in big numbers, you cannot fund public education, public health care and public transportation, and this recession has been driven bottom-up and not top-down and I hope that in Mr. Bush's wisdom, he would see the impact of restructuring the loans and of the families not just bailing out Bear Stearns and other companies, but both are important to you must be bottom-up and not top-down. VELSHI: There is a lot of discussion, Reverend, about not rewarding people for bad decisions and those bad decisions were made in some cases by lenders and borrowers who were not as informed as they could have been and what is your best answer about why we have to be involved to do something that some might call a bailout? JACKSON: Well, some who were speculating may have bought 10 or 15 houses, and we should not pay for speculators but basic homeowners who are truck drivers and teachers who trusted their lender and they got deceived, who we see left from redlining to reversing it to targeting communities for useless laws for useless lending patterns and in that case the Attorney General did not in fact protect homeowners from scams and schemes, of steering people eligible for prime and giving them subprime, a higher priced loan. And the target amount in a county in Georgia 15,000 homes in foreclosure and 3,000 of them losing value and that is all over the country and that is what must be addressed by the government. ROMANS: That is right. At a panel at the Rainbow Coalition, that I attended recently Reverend Jackson and they said for everybody who has a house in foreclosure, their neighbors are losing $10,000 in value and it is not only hurting the speculators for those who are trying to get the American dream and build wealth and make a better future for the children. I want to ask you something, 40 years later, economic mobility project and bi-partisan assessment of where we are on the American dream recently found if you are middle-class and white in this country, your children have a 16 percent chance of falling out of the middle-class and if you are middle-class and black, they have more than 50 percent chance of falling out of the middle-class. What is happening in this country where that can still be allowed? JACKSON: Well, Dr. King said there is not enough to be free and not equal, and not enough to pass a law and not enforce the law, and fund the law. So we see now a very violent patterns of structural disparities so if you are black or Latino kid or if the mortality rate is higher and the life expectancy is shorter and the unemployment is greater, within these cities jobs out and investment out, and drugs in, and guns in, and taxes up and services down, and first class jails and second class schools and we need therefore the big idea of restructuring and to bail out urban America and we did it in the '30s to bail out the depression and did it with the farmers in the 1980s with S&Ls in 1990 and these issues may be bigger than the economic crises and it is in our national interest to have a massive plan to restructure the loans and stop hemorrhaging the economy at the bottom. What is coming in at the hull of the ship where people are being violated and by the millions? VELSHI: Reverend Jackson, always a pleasure to talk to you and thank you for being on our show. Reverend Jesse Jackson founder and president of the Rainbow Coalition outside of the hotel in Memphis where he was standing 40 years ago when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. ROMANS: Coming up on YOUR MONEY how to reposition your career if you work in an industry that happens to be cutting jobs. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Now looking at some of this week's top stories. The numbers of individuals filing for bankruptcy surged in the first quarter of 2008 as American families struggle with debt and mortgage problems. The American Bankruptcy Institute reports that American consumer bankruptcy filings are up 27 percent from this period last year. March alone more than 86,000 people filed for consumer bankruptcy which is a 13 percent increase from February. ROMANS: Thirty one percent of domestic flights in February did not arrive on time due to cancellations, diversions or delays according to transportation department data released this week. The results show a slight improvement believe it or not from a year ago in 2007 when 33 percent of flights arrived late. This is the worst month on record for the airlines. VELSHI: And a rough month as well as ATA Airlines filed for bankruptcy and completely shutdown this week. The low-cost airline says that the shutdown is a result of financial troubles following the loss of a key contract for the military charter business. The Indiana- based service hubs of Chicago and Atlanta and also destinations like Hawaii and Phoenix and Las Vegas. ATA employed 2200 pilots and flight attendants and mechanics. ROMANS: Ouch for them. VELSHI: And as the U.S. flirts with session, many Americans are worried about saving their jobs, and that is just a few of them. ROMANS: That is right. Those working in industries could be particularly vulnerable to job cuts like manufacturing or construction; you may want to take steps to help ensure the future of the career. Brad Karsh of Jobbound a job prep service he joins us now. Brad, thank you for coming back. We want to talk about recession- proofing your careers. And there are some areas when you look at the lists of job losses that look particularly vulnerable. VELSHI: Take a look at it. Manufacturing jobs, Brad, we were looking at this and we have a map to show you that in 2007 only six states in the United States actually added manufacturing jobs. And they are not the ones that you would think they would be. We have Washington, Nevada, Utah, Nebraska and Kansas and Louisiana. We are not seeing growth in manufacturing jobs. BRAD KARSH, FOUNDER & CEO, JOBBOUND: Absolutely. And it is tough for those people who are working in the industry, because they are going to have to come up with some other options if they want to stay gainfully employed. ROMANS: What are the options? I mean, it is changing so quickly in the construction and the manufacturing sectors that it is changing much more quickly than people can change and retrain and move and uproot their lives to find new jobs in new geographical locations. KARSH: Yes, and it is never easy so there are a couple of things that people can do and one is that you have to think about, and some of the things I will talk about requires flexibility and maybe require taking a pay cutting, but if you want to stay related to the industry, there are things you can do. So for manufacturing for instance if a lot of the jobs are going overseas, maybe you would consider going overseas and that is not an option for everyone, but certainly some people can consider that. And another thing to do is to consider staying here, but instead of working in the actual production of the product, now talk about the repair of the product. ROMANS: Yes. KARSH: So as more and more and it is not like the absolute number of things you manufactured is going down, but that the jobs are leaving the country and still the need here to repair those. If you were working on creating those for so many years, you can help to repair it conceivably. VELSHI: And I know an autoworker laid off at Ford used to be a paint guy so he opened up a paint shop, that sort of thing. ROMANS: But moving overseas and huge Chinese factory is taking over for parts of the industry here, is not that you can move to China and get .30 an hour I don't think. VELSHI: What about the other area, Brad that we are seeing job losses in, and that is construction. KARSH: Yeah, tough. New home sales as we know are going down, but the fact of the matter is that when new home sales goes down, remodeling goes up. People staying in the house longer and more need for repair and sprucing it up. So if you work for a big company, and Toll Brothers if you will, consider moving into remodeling and there are not a lot of huge companies a la Toll Brothers, but maybe it is time to work for a small business doing remodeling things. Another thing to consider -- ROMANS: Oh, go ahead. KARSH: Another thing to consider is sales. Home depot looking for sales people. Industries like that tend to go up when new home sales go down and the other option is to sell the products that in essence you were using. You have an insider's point of view on that stuff and you used the drill bits for so many years and now you can sell them. VELSHI: Brad Karsh thank you so much for being with us. Thanks so much for being with us. Brad Karsh is president and founder of Jobbound and to the point that what he was saying there are a lot of options besides moving overseas and we should have it noted that is how grim that situation is. There are six states where there are manufacturing jobs increased in 2007, so if you are holding out for the return of manufacturing jobs in America, I would not hold my breath. Moving to another country seems almost more practical. ROMANS: And in the big picture issues education is that much more important and you have to go and be trained for something. A lot of people are talking about plumbing jobs and lock smith jobs and jobs like that where you can get an apprenticeship and certification and have a good career, but things are definitely, definitely changing out there in the economy, and you know, it is tough to get a student loan right now because of the credit crunch, so how are you supposed to -- well, I don't know. VELSHI: We will try to keep you posted on the whole thing. We will keep you posted on the whole thing. We are going to take a quick break. Coming up next on YOUR MONEY the April 15th tax deadline. ROMANS: Ali, you have to do it this weekend and walk out of here and finish. VELSHI: I will e-mail YOUR MONEY and get some questions answered. Up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: You know, my mother is going to watch this and say, you have no business telling people about filing your 2007 tax return as April 15th is rapidly approaching and she will say, do you know that you say this stuff and you never get your taxes filed on time? Well, you take it over. ROMANS: I will make sure she gets them done this weekend for sure. VELSHI: And you will make sure that I don't get hit with -- ROMANS: Steep penalties and fines and filing, you know, late and extensions and all of that stuff. Last week we asked you the send in the tax questions, and we got an awful lot of e-mail. VELSHI: AT least 50 percent of them worked for me. ROMANS: We will get right to the tax questions right now with the tax expert Dan Pilla author of the "IRS Problem Solver." VELSHI: I have a question here from Pamela and it is a good question from Minnesota, and she says would you explain the tax implications of the stimulus money we will be receiving and is it advancements of 2008 taxes or it is taxable or free money? DAN PILLA, AUTHOR, "IRS PROBLEM SOLVER:" Well, you are getting back your own money so in that since it is free money, it is certainly not taxable and a rebate of the tax you have paid. But what the stimulus does is to take the lowest tax bracket which is 10 percent on the first $6,000 of income and eliminates that bracket and essentially eliminates to zero so that the $600 that you would have paid on that income is coming back to you and that is where it is coming from. VELSHI: So you don't have to pay it back and not coming off of the next tax return, this is clean money? PILLA: Correct. ROMANS: And I'm a retired U.S. citizen and I would like to file a stimulus tax return. I have two dependent daughters. One is going to college and one will graduate from high school this year. I know I can claim the young daughter on my tax return, the other daughter is still attending college but both live with me and I pay for their entire support. Please inform me how to claim both of my daughters on the tax return and be eligible to do so. PILLA: Well, they are both dependent exemptions. Your stimulus will increases for the depending exemptions you have, I believe it is $300 per dependent, so in this case if you have two daughters that living at home and providing 100 percent of the support, and as long as the one in college is under 24 years of age and not earning income, she is independent exemption and that will increase the rebate. VELSHI: One more from Robin in Wisconsin, I have back taxes that I am paying off monthly and when I am closer to paying off the balance it is worth going to the IRS and trying to negotiate a lower payoff and any tips to do that so they will be receptive because the interest and penalties are killing me? PILLA: You know what I have heard people say that a thousand times it is the penalty and interest that kills me and a as a matter of fact IRS statistics show that the typical tax bill increases by about 270 percent as a result of penalty and interests, so what this lady needs to know is that every penalty provision in the tax code has a good faith or reasonable good faith cause so if you acted in good faith and reasonable cause for your actions not out a deliberate attempt to cheat or deceive the IRS, the penalties don't apply. So there is a chapter in my book "IRS Problem Solver" will show you step by step to do this. What you do is you make an application in the form of a letter for the abatement of the penalties and set forth facts in the letter to allow the reader to conclude that you acted in good faith and didn't cheat on purpose and the IRS will consider those facts and you have an excellent chance they will cancel them. VELSHI: And you do? You think there is a good chance? PILLA: Oh, there is no question about it. Yeah, this is one area where I have had tremendous success in the 30 years as a tax litigation consultant and we have had tremendous success in getting rid of the penalties and interest on penalties. VELSHI: A guy like you makes me feel like I should file my tax return. Dan Pilla is author of the "IRS Problem Solver" and I on the other hand is the IRS problem. ROMANS: Up next, the parent that plays the guitar but would never pay the bills. And some savvy investors are proving their parents wrong. We will explain next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: All right. So you may have give own up on the dream of being a rock star, but you haven't given up the old guitar yet. Actually I have an old guitar from those days when I thought I would be a rock star. ROMANS: Smart move. That guitar is far more than a link to your long, long ago youth, Ali. It may be the most sound investment you got in the shaky economy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS (voice over): Stock market turmoil, a weak dollar and growing concerns about inflation. Shaky times, but Rudy Pensa owner of Rudy's Music Stop in New York City is not exactly singing the blues. He buys and sells new and vintage guitars. He says that business is strong even though the economy is not. RUDY PENSA, OWNER, RUDY'S MUSIC STOP: Being in the business for 30 years, I found out that when the stock market goes down or whatever, people, the collectors buy more instruments, and it is basically a very secure investment, especially if it is a very good condition and very good to hear. ROMANS: Jobs like Penza's and trade shows like the one we visited in Jersey are fuelling the vintage guitar market. According to the vintage guitar index which tracks the value of 42 classic models prices have steadily increased since 1991. For most of the one of a kind and limited edition guitars, prices have remained high. But for less rare models, prices have leveled off over the last nine months and in some cases dropped. LARRY MEINERS, COLUMINIST, "WOOD STREET VS WALL STREET:" I am not sure if I understand exactly why, if it has something to do with the mortgage mess or the debt market. You have something that is super rare, super high end, tier one, excellent condition, 100 percent original, the market is still robust. For other guitars, you have to be really careful. ROMANS: Penza says that the prices can give investors with a stronger stomach a buying opportunity. PENZA: Right now in the next six months and in another year or two, it won't be anything available for, you know, for the price that is this affordable. ROMANS: But the financial planners warn investors about getting into the game, especially if it means pulling them out of traditional retirement investments. DOUG FLYNN, FLYNN ZITO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: It should be a small percentage because you don't know exactly what the payout will be there and you have to be at some point is able to part with it and if you are truly an enthusiast you might not be able to part with the things that are worth the most. ROMANS: Flynn says no more than 5 or 10 percent of the cash should go toward hobby investments. Pensa says he senses concern from his customers about their money and financial security. PENSA: I have never seen so many nervousness of the customers. Does that mean they will buy expensive guitars? I don't know. (END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: One thing that is so interesting about it is that the investors play these very, very valuable guitars and use them. Experts say as long as they don't scratch them or nicked or scratched in any way it doesn't hurt the value and you can't play with the mutual funds. VELSHI: Interesting point that you collect them and it is a liquid investment if you are not prepared to sell it. ROMANS: And it is like art or cars -- VELSHI: Yes, cars. ROMANS: And you have to love it and love it and know why you have it. I couldn't go out to buy a vintage guitar, because I am afraid to make a terrible choice. VELSHI: And I would dent it and scratch it. ROMANS: You know how the play? VELSHI: Well, I tried to learn. Guitar hero I can play. Well, thank you for joining us for this edition of YOUR MONEY. ROMANS: We will see you back here next week Saturday at 1:00, Sunday at 3:00. See you then. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxantshop.com


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Travel updates
Latest airport travel news
Long-term disruption to the road or rail networks around Aberdeen Airport is listed here. For day-of-travel information, please see below.
Live travel information
For traffic forecasts, planned engineering works or the latest updates on your day of travel, please use these links.
Traffic Scotland - Live road travel updates and forthcoming roadworks.
Transport Direct - An alternative source for live travel information.
FirstAberdeen service updates - Latest updates for First Group buses around Aberdeen
Stagecoach Bluebird information - Travel news for Stagecoach Bluebird buses
National Rail Enquiries - Travel updates and planned engineering works for national rail services.
First ScotRail JourneyCheck - Service updates and future engineering works for First ScotRail trains.


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More and more devices feature a USB-C port. But what's the technology behind it, and what benefits does this port offer?Learn more about USB-C
Learn the basics of HDR: why it's so impressive, how HDR varies in photography and how you can enjoy HDR at home.An overview of what HDR means for everything from TV to iPhone
A detailed explanation covering everything from the basics to the latest trends.Learn more about different aspects of HDR
EIZO's HDR reference monitor, ColorEdge PROMINENCE CG3145, is the first monitor to overcome the severe drawbacks of other HDR technologies that are available in the market today so it can be used reliably for post production work.Read more about HDR technology and the CG3145
Test the properties and parameters of your monitor quickly and easily with software developed in-house at EIZO.More on the EIZO monitor test
Notebook PCs are great for working on the go, but just cannot compare to the workspace that a monitor provides. With FlexScan frameless monitors you can get the best of both worlds.Connect an external monitor to a notebook
If you're considering purchasing a monitor, it's always important to check which video inputs are supported. Let's take a look at some of the current mainstream and soon-to-be mainstream interfaces that are available today.Modern Video Inputs
The 'Creators Update' for Windows 10 (version number 1703) includes a number of new and altered functionalities. This document provides you with information about a number of the changes to monitor settings and how to apply those settings.Read more about monitor settings after the Creators Update
Let's take a look at how we can use this multi-display tool on a Windows 10 notebook or desktop PC."Multi-display" function on Windows 10
Too soon or just the right time to make a purchase? Solve problems with your current monitor and break new ground. You can do all that with the 4K models from EIZO!4K Monitors - solve the problems
Understanding pixel density: a key criterion in selecting displays in the 4K age.Understanding pixel density
A primer on understanding colour gamuts and what to keep in mind when choosing and using an LCD monitor.Learn more about the colour gamut of LCD monitors
In this article, we'll focus on colour temperature, a fundamental parameter in picture quality adjustments.An introduction to "color temperature"
In this session, we'll discuss gamma, which has a significant impact on colour reproduction on LCD monitors.Learning about LCD monitor gamma and colour reproduction
In this article, we take you on a step-by-step tour of how our FlexScan EV-Series monitors are made – from assembly to packaging – at our global headquarters in Hakusan, Japan.More about our manufacturing standards and monitor production
EIZO has an in-house production line for optical bonding - a method with which to provide increased visibility and durability to LCD monitors.Learn more about Optical Bonding
Have you ever properly checked the display quality of the LCD you habitually use? We are going to talk about the basic points used to assess LCD display quality, and show you a simple way to test it.Checking the image quality of LCDs


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Selena Roberts's book "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez" is available in stores today. Joe Girardi must have received a review copy -- or he's spouting bullshit. One or the other. I think I know which one it is, but I'll let you decide.
It's interesting that the book (release) date got moved up.
Yeah, what do the young kids call it -- publicity? It's an odd thing. Hype, buzz, whatever you want to call it -- it's pretty new to American culture. It's not surprising you haven't had much experience with it.
And I get tired of answering these questions.
Is that why you "went on an unprovoked diatribe against the book" before Sunday's game against the Angels was rained out? Damn, Joe, if you're tired of the questions even before the book is for sale ...
I don't understand why someone would write a book like this anyway.
You played baseball in New York City -- with its tabloid back pages, rabid fans and sensationalist sports radio -- for four years, you worked as a broadcaster, and are now in your second season as Yankees manager. And you really have no idea why a book about the most famous baseball player in the world might be a good bet to draw some interest?
I'm a firm believer that what we do off the field is our personal life. ... I don't necessarily know why it has to be put in a book, unless the person volunteers it.
A-Rod has never been shy about putting his personal life in the public eye. Whether he's whisking escorts through hotel lobbies, wearing his Yankee cap to a strip club, undertipping at Hooters, making yet another verbal gaff or sunbathing in Central Park, he's hardly a hermit.
[come back, fjm, we miss you]


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Smoke damper single compartment w.servomotor 24V
Item Number: 38480
200 x 200 mm up to 1200 x 800 mm
E600 120 (ved i ↔ o) S500 C10000 AA single
1200 x 800 mm up to 1500 x 800 mm
E600 120 (ved i ↔ o) S1500 C10000 AA singleDescription
Rectangular Smoke Control Damper for one (single) fire compartment with Automatic Activation is CE certified in accordance with the EN 12101-8, tested according to EN 1366-10 and classified in accordance with EN13501-4.
DKIS1's casing is made of a zinc plated sheet metal. Metal covered blade has fire resistant board inside. Flanges are used for connection of the damper DKIS1 to a duct.
Smoke control damper is a component of SHEVS (smoke and heat extract ventilation systems) and has two safety positions:
1. open - to enable exhaust of heat and smoke.
2. closed - to stop the spread of heat and smoke.Highlights
• Lightweight construction
• Tested underpressure up to 1500 Pa
• Easy In or On the duct installationMaterial composition
This product contains iron, brass, zinc, calcium-silicate non-asbestos boards, passive and active anti-fire sealing. They are disposed of according to legal regulations. The product does not contain any dangerous materials.Tightness
All Rectangular smoke control dampers have tightness of the blade/casing class 2B according to EN 1751.Actuator operated fire dampers
By default, all smoke control dampers are supplied with an actuator with micro switches, optionally with power and communication unit. Smoke control damper closes or opens the damper after the command from the building management system or connected smoke detector. The Actuator closes within 60 seconds and does not need a fire resistive cover. For the duration of the blade rotation the current must be supplied, therefore it is necessary to connect the smoke control damper through fire resistive cables.
Smoke control damper with an activation mechanism with a Belimo smoke actuator (AC 230 V) with auxiliary switches.
Smoke control damper with an activation mechanism with a Belimo smoke actuator (AC/DC 24 V) with auxiliary switches.
Smoke control damper with an activation mechanism with a Belimo smoke actuator (AC/DC 24 V) with auxiliary switches., with a Belimo supply and communication unit BKNE230-24.


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16 - Crysti Howser
|Wilmette, IL
|High School:
|New Trier Township
Howser became only the second player in school history to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year last fall. She also was a finalist for the Soccer Buzz National Freshman of the Year, earned first team All-Ivy recognition, was an NSCAA Northeast Region third team selection and was the Soccer Buzz Northeast Region Freshman of the Year. Her nine assists led the Ivy League and were the second most in a season in Yale history. She finished with 25 points, which was third in the Ivy League and she was tied with teammate Emma Whitfield for third in the league in goals with eight. Her biggest assist of the season came on Laurel Karnes's goal with one second left in the second half as Yale edged Duke 2-1 in the second round of the NCAA College Cup. She had a pair of two-goal games, against Central Connecticut and Quinnipiac, and was chosen as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week three times. Two of her eight goals were game-winners. Howser also plays ice hockey at Yale and was an honorable mention All-Ivy selection in her first year after leading the team in scoring with 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists). She starred in soccer at New Trier Township High School, which was ranked No. 1 in the country in two of her years and won back-to-back state championships. A center midfielder, she registered 30 goals and 18 assists as a senior and was named all-state for the second time. In addition, Howser has been an Olympic Development regional team member since 1999.
Howser's Statistics Overall Ivy GPGSGAPtsGAPts 2005201989254210


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Asphalt 5 HD FREE (Android) - There's a dream car for you.
Try the free version of Asphalt 5 and race with the fastest dream cars ever created by some of the most prestigious manufacturers in the world.
Everything you've ever dreamed of doing behind the wheel is here on your Android HD phone.
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What's New in This Release:
· More devices officially supported: HTC Desire HD, Acer Liquid Metal, Motorola Defy, Samsung Continuum, Motorola Milestone 2, Google Nexus S, HTC Evo Shift, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Cliq 2