Obama Panel's Cancer Warning; Healthcare Details; and Grandfathered is the Key Word

The President’s Cancer Panel released a report entitled “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk,” which led to this NY Times’ headline: U.S. Panel Criticized as Overstating Cancer Risks. Big journalism.com writes: The verb “overstating” doesn’t go half far enough, but coming from the Times that’s still pretty damning. The report was a collection of conjecture, unrelated factoids and, more than anything, a shrill call for more: more government, more studies and, of course, more money. Even the American Cancer Society found it a bit over the top.
http://bigjournalism.com/rtrzupek/2010/05/08/government-cancer-scare-report-so-bogus-even-the-new-york-times-noticed/
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Yahoo News reports:  an obscure part of the [healthcare] law allows states to restrict abortion coverage by private plans operating in new insurance markets. Capitalizing on that language, abortion foes have succeeded in passing bans that, in some cases, go beyond federal statutes.
"We don't consider elective abortion to be health care, so we don't think it's a bad thing for fewer private insurance companies to cover it," said Mary Harned, attorney for Americans United for Life, a national organization that wrote a model law for the states.
Abortion rights supporters are dismayed.
"Implementation of this reform should be about increasing access to health care and increasing choices, not taking them away," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate leadership.
Since Obama signed the legislation law March 23, Arizona and Tennessee have enacted laws restricting abortion coverage by health plans in new insurance markets, called exchanges. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100516/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_abortion
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Millions of Americans could lose some important benefits of the new health overhaul law depending on how the Obama administration chooses to interpret one term: "grandfathered." Under the law, existing, or "grandfathered" health plans are exempt from several consumer protections, including a requirement that beginning as early as September prohibits health plans from charging co-payments and other cost-sharing for certain preventive health services such as immunizations and cancer screenings. The issue has touched off a debate over how grandfathering is defined, with some consumer and employer groups squaring off. Consumer groups say that if the definition.
Some employers are concerned that changes they typically make every year to their employee health coverage — such as changing a policy's co-pays or deductibles — could alter a plan's grandfathered status.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/09/93794/grandfathered-health-plans-how.html#ixzz0nWupinNQ
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[In a demonstration of just how unready for office was this administration, it is being reported now by the AP]:  In the wake of the Times Square bombing plot, the Obama administration said on Sunday it wants to work with Congress on possible limitations of the constitutional rights afforded terrorism suspects — even for American citizens.
Attorney General Eric Holder said changes may be needed to allow law enforcement more time to question suspected terrorists before they are told about their Miranda rights to a lawyer and to remain silent under interrogation.
The Miranda warning — a bedrock guarantee of a suspect's constitutional rights — has come under more intense study because accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin. The administration declared on Sunday that he was working under the direction of the Pakistani Taliban. [Since this one IS an American citizen, perhaps in this case a trial for treason would be in order.]
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Investors Business Daily reports: With tax rates on track to surge next year, it may be time to cash out of dividend-paying stocks, reminds accountant Joe Kristan over at Going Concern.

When the Bush tax cuts expire, the capital gain rate is set to return to 20%. But without Congressional action, dividends will again be taxed as ordinary income. ... That would mean a 164% increase (in) the top dividend rate.

http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/1742-tax-rate-on-dividends-set-to-surge-164-after-2010
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97.6% of the respondents to an L.A. Times poll were opposed to the boycott of Arizona [by the LA City Council.]
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The AP reports: The National Federation of Independent Business will announce Friday it is joining a federal lawsuit (filed in Florida by 20 state attorneys general and governors) challenging the health care law’s constitutionality, according to the Associated Press., NFIB President Dan Danner said in an interview.  
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=16&subcatid=57&threadid=4047398 
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Wesley Pruden writes:  Once upon a time we could count on lawyers and law school professors to defend the First Amendment, the most important 46 words in the Constitution. Those 46 words make everything else possible. Shut up the people and the government can shut down every other freedom.   To wit, Elena Kagans explanation of the First Amendment. It's perfectly OK, she wrote in the University of Chicago Law Review, for the government to restrict free speech as long as it means well and calls it something else. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/14/the-first-amendment-under-progressive-siege/ 
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Health reform threatens to cram already overwhelmed hospital ERs – TheHill.com
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(Bloomberg) -- Greece is considering taking legal action against U.S. investment banks that might have contributed to the country’s debt crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou said.
“I wouldn’t rule out that this may be a recourse,” Papandreou said, in response to questions about the role of U.S. banks in the crisis.   http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aDxF1YfeViEc

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