AARP Bulletin

Every weekday morning, Billie Marion walks a few blocks to the bus stop from the South Natomas home she shares with her daughter. She commutes downtown, where she spends her days wrapping gifts in a tiny office at Grebitus and Sons jewelers across from the Capitol. She's 88, the daughter of a Methodist minister, a small, energetic woman whose one vanity seems to be fingernails manicured a bright shade of orange.

ALBANY -- The Capital Region job market is improving as private employers become more willing to hire, a sign the local economy is turning a corner and advancing toward recovery. But state government job reductions are slowing the rebound -- and loom as an economic threat. The region added nearly 4,500 jobs in April, the state Labor Department said Thursday.

State regulators have fined the beleaguered Motion Picture and Television Fund $7,500 for failing to prevent a serious head injury sustained by an 87-year-old resident of the charity's nursing home. The California Department of Public Health issued a severe citation to the fund, saying the motion picture nursing home failed to follow a comprehensive plan of care for a patient who was injured while she was being transferred between her bed and wheelchair. The incident, which occurred last May, is likely to fuel questions about the level of care that existed in the turbulent months following the fund's decision in January 2009 to shut down the nursing home and hospital.

State officials have fined nine California hospitals for medical errors last year that in some cases killed or seriously injured patients, according to a report made public Thursday. California Department of Public Health officials have required hospital officials -- who may appeal the fines -- to submit plans to correct the problems. Three hospitals in Orange County and the Inland Empire face $50,000 penalties, the first such fines for each.

It was and still is the biggest Medicare fraud case in U. S. history and ended with the hospital giant Columbia/HCA paying a record $1. 7 billion in fines, penalties and damages.

The IRS is investigating Billy Cypress, the former longtime chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe, for alleged income tax violations linked to the tribe's multimillion dollar gambling operation -- a probe that coincides with a major shake-up in the tribe's leadership and the ouster of its longtime lawyer. The Internal Revenue Service has issued a civil summons to Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) Smith Barney, the tribe's Miami bank, seeking Cypress' credit card statements and other records from 2003 to 2005. The April 6 summons also demands the tribe's credit card records and the names of members authorized to use the Morgan Stanley account for the same three-year period.

It is encouraging that Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio wants to pursue a proposal to develop a health care clinic for city employees. The venture should cut costs for taxpayers and improve care for workers. The administration plans to invite private vendors to offer proposals for operating a medical clinic for city workers and their families.

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has been under tough Congressional scrutiny over the last two years for what critics assert are flawed evaluations of health risks at the nation’s worst contaminated sites. Now the Government Accountability Office has issued a report detailing some problems with the agency’s internal policies and inconsistent monitoring by its management. In the report, released on Thursday as officials from the health agency were questioned at a hearing of the House subcommittee on investigations and oversight, the office found a lack of policies in place to give a higher level of review to hazardous sites.

Highland Hospital in Oakland was fined $75,000 Thursday for a medication error that led to a patient's death. It was the second time the state Department of Public Health has penalized Highland because of a medical error since Jan. 1, 2009. Highland leaders have submitted a correction plan to the state detailing how they will avoid similar mistakes in the future.

CLEARWATER -- A licensed practical nurse gave the wrong inmate insulin in the Pinellas County Jail's medical building, causing him to spend a few days in the intensive care unit of a hospital, according to internal affairs documents made available this month. Patricia Ameen was suspended for three days -- April 19, 20 and 23, the documents say. She was also ordered to undergo remedial training.

SCHENECTADY -- City Detective Sherri Barnes obtained narcotics to feed a drug habit and flashed her badge in one instance to get narcotics, a jury decided this morning. Barnes, who retired from the police department while the jury was deliberating Tuesday, faces up to a year in jail on each of the two charges -- official misconduct and criminal diversion of prescription medication. Barnes, who was expressionless when the jury delivered its verdict at 11:25 a.

Converting from paper health records to electronic ones is complex for any doctor's office. The Caridad Center works with 30 volunteer dentists, 100 physicians, and more than 7,000 patients at its clinic west of Boynton Beach each year. As a result, the complexity of converting to a digital record is magnified, said Carmen Nieves, clinic director.

Citing widespread voter disgust with Albany, two of the three Republican candidates for governor Thursday promised radical change to lower property taxes and spur job growth. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and Buffalo real-estate developer Carl Paladino each said voters' frustration with state government was justified. They were responding to a new Newsday/Hofstra University Poll that found 90 percent of Long Islanders are fed up with Capitol goings-on and worried about the economy and state budget deficit.

School budgets in Johnsburg, Schroon Lake and Ticonderoga were sent back for changes when voters defeated them at the polls on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, officials in Johnsburg and Ticonderoga were scrambling to put meetings together as they decide what to do next. In Schroon Lake, officials have already decided they will put a revised budget proposal back before the voters.

A San Diego company's bid to become the first to sell genetic tests through a national chain of stores hit another major snag Wednesday as congressional lawmakers elevated scrutiny of the burgeoning consumer-genomics industry to a new level. In letters to Pathway Genomics of Sorrento Valley and two other California companies -- 23andMe of Mountain View and Navigenics of Foster City -- members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce requested a long list of records in light of "concern from the scientific community regarding the accuracy of test results. " Legislators are seeking information about the way these businesses link certain genetic markers to risks for diseases and adverse drug reactions.

The genome pioneer J. Craig Venter has taken another step in his quest to create synthetic life by synthesizing an entire bacterial genome and using it to take over a cell. Dr. Venter calls the result a “synthetic cell” and is presenting the research as a landmark achievement that will open the way to creating useful microbes from scratch to make products like vaccines and biofuels.

JOSHUA TREE -- The state Department of Public Health has fined Hi-Desert Medical Center $50,000 for causing an electrical burn to a child patient during a minor surgery last year, hospital officials said Wednesday. The incident occurred in May 2009 when doctors used an electric cauterizing tool to seal the child's blood vessels to minimize blood flow -- a common surgical procedure, hospital CEO Lionel "Chad" Chadwick said. The tool made contact with bodily fluids and caused a second to third-degree burn, about one inch wide and three inches long, on the child's buttocks, Chadwick said.

While the city faces a relatively painless deficit for the next fiscal year, long-term fiscal challenges like ballooning pension and retiree medical costs and unpredictable state raids lay heavy on its back. Finance Director Bruce Moe presented City Council Tuesday night with a short list of options that could be used to deal with the proposed $2 million deficit in 2010-11, options that would prevent the city from tapping into reserves, initiating layoffs or decreasing the level of service to residents. Moe recommended City Council allow a one-time reduction of $800,000 from the Insurance Fund, which would still maintain a balance of $1 million more than the required policy level.

New York voters passed 92 percent of the school budgets across the state on Tuesday, stamping out any concerns of a backlash against districts that are seeking to raise property taxes and reduce their staffs and programs next year. In all, voters approved 619 school budgets and rejected 51, according to results reported by the state’s Education Department on Wednesday. Many of the defeated budgets appeared to be in districts that had sought large tax increases to help offset reductions in state aid.

UC Merced appointed Donald M. Hilty, M. D. , to the position of co-director of the UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education. The appointment is the latest step in the university's long-term plan to develop a medical education program leading to an independent medical school, it said in a news release.