Justifiably Unhealthy...

The Health Insurance Industry seems to get funnier every day...if only medical problems could be cured this way!

Justify high rates, health secretary tells execs: "Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told insurance executives Thursday that their companies should be more transparent when they seek higher premiums amid what she called 'jaw-dropping rate increases' from California to the East Coast.

'The top five largest for-profit insurance companies filed earnings of $12.2 billion last year while dropping coverage for 2.7 million Americans,' Sebelius said. 'It just doesn't make a lot of sense to people across America frightened that they're being priced out of the market.'"

Getting Really Hot and Pi**** off in Arizona

Arizonans Rise Up to Protest Closing of Highway Rest Stops - NYTimes.com: "Arizona has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget, and the state Department of Transportation was $100 million in the red last fall when it decided to close 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops.

But the move has unleashed a torrent of telephone calls and e-mail messages to state lawmakers, newspapers and the Department of Transportation deploring the lost toilets — one of the scores of small indignities among larger hardships that residents of embattled states face as governments scramble to shore up their finances."

A rare occurrence - A Business School Walking the CSR Talk

IIM-B to refund fees of students opting for NGO placements: "The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) will refund the fees of around Rs 8 lakh that students pay for their two-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP) if they take up a job in any non-profit entity (NGO) and work there for at least three years. IIM-B officials explained that the decision was taken because a number of students had expressed a desire to work with NGOs over the past few years but were concerned about their finances. The IIM-B board of governors discussed the issue in a meeting in October 2009 and passed the proposal to take effect for the 2010 placement, starting March 4. “We want our students to work in NGOs and even the government sector, where there is need for better management,” Pankaj Chandra, director of IIM-B told Business Standard."

Bucking the question...

Starbucks asks not to be center of gun debate - Yahoo! Finance: "Coffee chain Starbucks Inc. is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal and said it does not want to be put in the middle of a larger gun-control debate."

Supreme Court Still Divided on Guns - NYTimes.com: ..."Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who also wrote a dissent in Heller, peppered the lawyers with questions about how the court might apply the Second Amendment to the states in a limited way. The Second Amendment says, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Drawing on the first clause of the amendment, Justice Breyer said that a right tied to state militias might be worthy of protection, while the right to bear arms “to shoot burglars” might not be.

The lead plaintiff in the case, Otis McDonald, has said he wants to keep a handgun in his home for protection from drug gangs. Justice Breyer asked Alan Gura, a lawyer for residents of Chicago challenging its gun control law, whether the city should remain free to ban guns if it could show that hundreds of lives would be saved. Mr. Gura said no.

Justice Scalia objected to the inquiry. A constitutional right, he said, cannot be overcome because it may have negative consequences...."