ProPublica Illinois and ProPublica Local Reporting Network Partnership Win Awards of Excellence in Health Care Journalism

On March 28, 2019 By admin

• Breaking News

by ProPublica

The Association of Health Care Journalists announced Wednesday that ProPublica Illinois’ “Stuck Kids” series won an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism in the health policy category, and “Half-Life,” a collaboration between the Santa Fe New Mexican and ProPublica, won in the public health category.

“Stuck Kids,” by ProPublica Illinois reporter Duaa Eldeib, exposed how hundreds of Illinois children spent weeks, and sometimes months, in psychiatric hospitals after doctors had cleared them for release. As they waited for the state’s child welfare agency to find them more appropriate homes, they were trapped inside locked facilities — deteriorating mentally and behaviorally — despite a state law mandating that children in state care live in the “least restrictive” setting. In addition to revealing the failure of the child welfare system to find appropriate placements for children, the stories also detailed disturbing allegations of sexual and physical abuse, as well as patient safety violations, at a psychiatric hospital the state relies on to treat hundreds of children in its care.

Following publication, lawmakers convened a bipartisan legislative hearing to force Illinois Department of Children and Family Services officials to explain why they routinely failed to find placements for children in psychiatric hospitals. A federal judge appointed an independent monitor to oversee agency reforms for the first time in more than two decades, the Cook County public guardian filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of children stuck in psychiatric hospitals and DCFS’ own inspector general launched an investigation into children languishing in psychiatric hospitals. In addition, DCFS stopped sending children in its care to the psychiatric hospital where there were allegations of abuse and removed those who were still there.

“Half-Life” by reporter Rebecca Moss of the Santa Fe New Mexican — a participant in the 2018 ProPublica Local Reporting Network — explored ongoing worker health and safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. While the government claims that nuclear safety issues were only a Cold War problem, workers say that the lab has not accurately tracked their radiation exposure, and that they are being denied benefits as a result. The series found that lab contractors have amassed more than $110 million in fines and lost performance bonuses for serious accidents, radiation exposure and other lapses since 2006. Moss also reported that the government has made it difficult for workers to get compensation for radiation-linked cancers, revealing a 10-year delay on a petition that would grant benefits to those who could prove they had such cancers. Hundreds of workers who began working at the lab after the Cold War have died waiting for answers.

As a result of this reporting, dozens of additional workers and their friends have come forward with reports of occupational illnesses at Los Alamos, unreported accidents and problems accessing benefits. Former federal officials, including ex-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and former OSHA chief David Michaels, have called for Congress to reform the benefits program to better help recent workers.

In addition, a ProPublica collaboration with Wondery, “Dr. Death,” won third place in the investigative category. The story examined the case of Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon who practiced in Dallas from 2011 to 2013. He earned the nickname Dr. Death after the vast majority of his patients ended up severely injured. Two died. The story not only looks at Duntsch’s actions, but how the health care system was complicit in the tragedy.

See a list of all the Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism winners here.

Russia and the Democrats

On March 28, 2019 By admin

• Breaking News

Two years ago authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes wrote in their book Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign that within 24 hours of her 2016 electoral loss, Hillary Clinton’s senior campaign staff decided to blame the loss on Russian interference. Given the apparent source of the charge in opposition research funded by the Clinton campaign, the move seemed both desperate and pathetic— a thread for Clinton’s true believers to hang onto, an effort to keep campaign contributions rolling in and a ploy to cleave liberals from the left through red-baiting.

For perspective, from the time leading up to the 2016 election through today, I chose to live amongst poor and working-class people of color, with occasional forays into the rural working and middle classes and the urban bourgeois. What became apparent early on is that the audience for the Russian interference story was the urban and suburban bourgeois who had seen their lots by-and-large restored by Barack Obama’s bank bailouts and who had no knowledge of, or interaction with, the 90% of the country that is living, by degree, hand-to-mouth.

What this implies is that the received wisdom amongst bourgeois Democrats— the bosses, bank managers, academics, realtors and administrative class, looks to be what it is: a combination of class loathing that their ‘lessors’ didn’t perceive the munificent blessing of their electoral choice; mass delusion on the part of self-styled ‘high-information voters’ about who really controls American ‘democracy;’ and studied ignorance of the consequences of the last half-century of bi-partisan neoliberal governance.

As I wrote in early 2018:

“Prior to the 2016 presidential election, if one were to ask what single act could seal a new Cold War with Russia, align liberals and progressives with the operational core of the American military-industrial-surveillance complex, expose the preponderance of left-activism as an offshoot of Democratic Party operations and consign most of what remained to personal invective against an empirically dangerous leader, consensus would likely have it that doing so wouldn’t be easy.”

The Clinton campaign’s decision to blame her electoral loss on Russian interference demonstrates why she was, and still is, unqualified to hold elected office. In the first, the U.S. – Russian rivalry is backed-up by hair-trigger nuclear arsenals that could end the world in a matter of minutes. Inciting tensions based on self-serving lies is stunningly reckless. In the second, the claim demonstrates utter contempt for her most loyal followers by feeding them purposely misleading explanations of the loss. And most damagingly for political opponents of Donald Trump, these actions give credence to the insurgent status of his retro-Republicanism against liberal and left defenders of the political establishment.

Most damaging to the burgeoning left in the U.S. is the deeply ugly character assassination of poor and working-class voters carried out by the urban bourgeois, many from the self-described radical left. People I know and like, but with whom I disagree politically but am working hard to convert, have spent the last three years being derided as traitorous, marginally literate hicks too stupid to know they are pawns of the Kremlin. The irony, if you care to call it that, is that they knew the Russian interference story was cynical bullshit all along while the graduate degree crowd was following every twist and turn as if it were true knowledge.

The Democratic Party ‘leadership’ that pursued this story is as stupid as it is corrupt. The purpose of Russia-gate was apparently to keep the Party faithful, faithful. But as was demonstrated in 2016, the faithful alone can’t win an election. This leadership turned what could have been an effective ‘give ‘em enough rope’ strategy against arrogant jackass Trump back on itself. The establishment-left had been in the process of giving self-described socialists someone to vote for in 2020. Too-clever-by-half liberal twaddle about ‘post-truth’ now has liberals— universally conflated with the left, perceived as both idiots and liars. And rightly so.

Democrats who spent the last three years making less than plausible (and politically retrograde) accusations against Mr. Trump likely still don’t understand their current position. Their call for an exhaustive investigation carried out by people they trust was honored. While the investigation was underway, the mainstream press put one ludicrous fantasy after another forward as news. This while a host of real issues affecting real people’s lives were studiously ignored. As incredulous as I am that it could be done, liberal Democrats have made corrupt oligarch Trump appear to be righteously aggrieved. Who says these people have no talent?

The New York Times and Washington Post have been publishing politically motivated ‘fake news’ in support of establishment interests since their inceptions. Their service to powerful interests is why they are still around. The FBI, CIA and NSA have been putting out politically motivated bullshit since their respective inceptions. They exist to serve the rich and powerful against all comers. To claim these as bastions of integrity was always a tough sell. To continue to claim it is the stuff from which revolutions are made. In this case, right-wing revolutions.

While the urban bourgeois have long been dismissive of the ‘burn it down’ contingent of Trump voters, they seem incapable of seeing their own roles as defenders of the establishment as corrupt and ultimately, politically suicidal. I voted for a woman for president and a black man for vice president in 2016. But they weren’t Democrats. Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election because she is a corrupt, neoliberal, militaristic piece of shit. Ironically, or not, most of Trump voters I’ve spoken with know more about the Democrats’ actual record than the highly educated urban bourgeois pontificating on NPR or in the New York Times.

A quick bet is that the 2020 presidential election is now Donald Trump’s to lose. Lying sacks of shit like James Clapper and John Brennan will tie their lots to whomever will fund their adventures in mal-governance as the world burns and species become extinct. The tragedy here is that there are real issues in need of resolution. The Democrats’ three-year adventure in red-baiting served to legitimate a financial-military-industrial complex that apparently intends to end the planet as it makes as many people miserable in the process as is possible. Congratulations assholes.

Charlottesville car attacker James Alex Fields pleads guilty to 29 federal hate crimes

On March 28, 2019 By admin

• Breaking News

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The young neo-Nazi who rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters during the violent, white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally two years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges on Wednesday.

James Alex Fields Jr., 21, was hit with both state and federal charges for his actions during Unite the Right, which left 32-year-old Heather Heyer dead and dozens more injured. In December, a Virginia jury found Fields guilty on the state charges, which included first-degree murder, and recommended that he spend life, plus 419 years, in state prison.

Fields, who drove from Maumee, Ohio, to attend the August 2017 rally, was indicted on 30 federal civil rights charges last June — 29 of which were for hate crimes. He initially pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Wednesday, he switched his plea to “guilty” for all 29 hate crime charges.

“The violence in Charlottesville was an act of hate, and everyone across the country felt the impact,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “This guilty plea underscores that we won’t stand for hate and violence in our communities.”

The last charge, “bias-motivated interference with federally protected activity resulting in death,” carries the possibility of the death penalty, which prosecutors had not ruled out. It’s not clear what the status of that charge is now. According to NBC 29, Fields and his lawyers struck a deal: He would plead guilty to hate crime charges on the condition that prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.

Cover image: This undated file photo provided by the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail shows James Alex Fields Jr., convicted of first-degree murder for driving his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. (Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail via AP, File)

Modern Horror Rules as 'US' Brings in $29 Million Opening…

On March 28, 2019 By admin

• Breaking News

Box Office Blowout: Modern Horror Rules as Jordan Peele’s “Us” Brings in $29 Million Opening, Eyes $60-$70 Mil Weekend

It’s all about “Us” this weekend.

Jordan Peele’s follow up to “Get Out” scored a huge $29 million Friday including $7.4 mil from Thursday previews. By Sunday night, the modern horror film could have $70 million in the bank.

This is despite some disappointing reaction from social media last night. A lot of Tweets I read didn’t find “Us” as compelling as reviewers did. But that’s not going to stop the momentum. People want to see this movie.

“Us” will not top last fall’s “Halloween,” which had an opening weekend of $76.2 million. But it will do twice the business of “Get Out”– that’s kind of weird factoid because no one knew what “Get Out” was when it opened.

Still, the important thing here is that Jordan Peele has become a top filmmaker, he’s using top black actors, and he’s part of the quickly changing landscape of cinema.

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