Tuesday's Number: 2015 Q1 Recap

It's hard to believe we've closed the books on the first quarter of 2015 already, isn't it?

For the Tuesday's Number tracking, have we turned the corner? Maybe reached a place where we would start seeing some consistency in the number, keeping it low? After all, about a week ago we hit the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

A couple of housekeeping things, before we get to the recap. I started tracking this in late 2012, and have full-year data beginning in 2013. I've changed how I track things over the years; for example, in 2013, I didn't have individual breakdowns for each of the four Syracuse hospitals; that's been in place since the first quarter of 2014.

And, it wasn't until this year that I started 'crediting' satisfied judgments, subtracting them from the overall total. I decided to do that this year, since there's a reasonable possibility that the judgments being satisfied today may have been in the filings since I started tracking the numbers. That said, I did some tinkering on the numbers from 2013 and 2014 so that the satisfied judgments are now removed from the totals to give us a more apples to apples comparison.

So, how'd we do?

• There were 262 judgments, satisfied judgments and bankruptcy filings this quarter, compared with 253 in the first quarter of 2014 and 311 in the first quarter of 2013.

• The total dollar value of the filings for 2015 is $5,481,379.  For the same time period in 2014, the total was $5,163,376 and for 2013, the first quarter total was $6,992,112.

• This quarter had the second lowest new judgment total (good), the second lowest satisfied judgment total (bad), and the second highest bankruptcy total (worse). Overall, it's the third lowest quarterly total since I started tracking. 

• In nine quarters, the total of all filings (new judgments + bankruptcies - satisfied judgments) is a whopping $56,394,814.

I've been watching this for a long time, and every time I do a recap, I'm blown away by the amount of money that is reflected here.  I'm boggled by what the people of Central New York could do if they didn't have this kind of medical debt hanging over their heads, whether or not some of it may be self-inflicted. 

I wonder what our hospitals could do if they weren't saddled with trying to collect this money, but instead were investing it in, say, community health services, working on quality initiatives, improving health outcomes, or training more primary care physicians, rural practitioners or urban health specialists.

I wonder what insurance companies could do with premiums and administrative costs if they weren't burdened by add-ons payments to help cover these costs.  

And I wonder what the New York could do with our tax dollars if they weren't needed to support medical facilities across the state; maybe take less of them, for example? 

Think of the possibilities, if we could figure this one out.  

Tuesday's Number: $133,674

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were eight new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $103,179. 
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $12,505. 
• And there was one health care related bankruptcy, totaling $43,000. 

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse gets a credit of $12,505, for the satisfied judgment
• St Josephs had no filings
• SUNY Upstate had eight, totaling $103,179
• Community, part of Upstate, also had no filings.

The bankruptcy filing was for an out-of-area hospital, making up the $43,000 difference.

I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

What's Really Wrong with The Republican Party

Last week a contributor to my local paper had a piece about the problem with Republicans, which pointed out several of their shortcomings, including;

• voting over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act
• holding government departments hostage to express ideals
• applying an unchanging, literal interpretation of the Constitution, which we all know is a living document
• Grover Norquist, the anti-tax pledge poobah
• not recognizing the inequalities in our society
• bowing to business interests, regardless of ethics and 'trust' issues
• poor public relations skills

He notes, as many have, that the Rs have an opportunity now, perhaps a "once in a lifetime" opportunity: 

They could show creativity, a sense of the future, anticipate what is needed, yet they are mired in dysfunction and inability to focus on anything but flailing at the president, who seems to be deploying Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope tactic with more than moderate success. 

Note that a year ago Kimatian opined on how easy it is to be a Democrat; he will be offering his opinion on what's wrong with Dems this week.  I'll offer mine as well.

Kimatian addressed many of the things that frustrate me about Republicans, and did a reasonable job with his focus on what's happening at the national level, but I think the real problem with Republicans is what's happening at the lower jurisdictions (after all, that's where most Congressional Republicans come from) and the Party's apparent inability to disavow any person or thing, any animal, vegetable or mineral, that puts an R on its chest.

Damn the Constitution, full speed ahead.  Damn common sense, full speed ahead.  Screw the less fortunate, full speed ahead.  Screw the environment, full speed ahead.  Take no prisoners when it comes to health insurance, or violence against women, or voting rights. Christianity should be our national religion. Separation of church and state, well, that's not important. Gays should be shot in the head. Corporations have deeply held beliefs. Women should have to prove they were raped (this is but one instance of Republican rape insensitivity; there are dozens.) All marriages licenses to be signed by members of the clergy. Make sure you follow the rules on lawn-mowing at abortion clinics.

Remember, folks: the Republicans are the party of smaller, less intrusive government...

It's hard to look at laws and ballot initiatives that are taken up (and some passed) by Republican legislators, or suggested by what can only be described as hard-core Christians who wander around the right fringe, and not think that Republicans are looking to circle the wagons around a vision of America that is only populated by straight wealthy white Christians who are desperately afraid of what the world is becoming.

A vision of America that is so deeply rooted in the past that it forsakes a significant population of the country, including people like me (middle class straight non religious white women) who are afraid of what America will become if we continue to have elected officials acting like we're living in the 1950s instead of 2015.

We need leadership and an agenda that includes the economy and immigration and tax reform and health care and the military and how we are to act in a world that is no longer predominantly populated by people who resemble the traditional Republican. We need people looking forward, not back.

Look ahead, Republicans, and look around at those who wave your banner and get them to start looking ahead with you. Disavow the charlatans, the extremists, and those who commit bad acts in your name.

Unless, of course, you agree with them.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v25)

Listening to the wind blow outside, and also in many other places around the country. Sort of like the intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports. You know, "spanning the globe... the thrill of victory...the agony of defeat." That kind of wind blowing.

There was the wind from the Duck Dynasty Dude, Phil Robertson, for example.  The man who, with a simple turn of a phrase, likely caused a payer breakfast full of indigestion.  Robertson was talking about the dangers of atheism, which apparently include being victimized in horrific camouflaged bearded-man fantasies.  Listen, or just read it, for yourself.

I'll make a bet with you. Two guys break into an atheist's home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and time him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and they decapitate her head off in front of him. And they the can look at him and say "isn't it great that I don't have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there's nothing wrong with this?  There's no right or wrong, now is it dude?  Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say "wouldn't it be something if there was something wrong with this?" But you're the one who says there is no God, there's no right, there's no wrong, so we're just having fun. We're sick in the head! Have a nice day. 

I'm wondering, on Wednesday, if the bet Robertson wanted to make (which is unclear to me after reading this and listening to it a few times) was something along the lines of "I bet I can make you hurl your sausage biscuits and gravy."  Do you think anyone at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast managed to keep their breakfast down?

Their goal this:

Through the inspiration of this gathering, the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast hopes to encourage each participant to be a part of a small group that cultivates growth and facilitates positive change to create God-centered communities. 

Are you ready to go out and create the kind of communities Robertson was invited to inspire?

And then there's the wind out of Missouri. The Show Me State appears to have one of those forward-thinking conservative legislatures, the kind that takes up bills like the ones pushed by State Representative Richard Brattin.  Last year, Brattin wanted women to have to get permission from the man who got her pregnant before she could have an abortion - unless of course there was proof of a legitimate rape or proof that the man was dead.

Brattin's back; this time, he wants to make it impossible for anyone receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from purchasing fish, steak, soda, cookies, chips and energy drinks.

Do you think that Brattin thinks lobster and shrimp are fish? Or is he looking out for these folks, and not letting them eat fish sticks?

The editors at the St Louis Post-Dispatch aren't wondering much:

Among many, if not most, Republican lawmakers in Missouri, it is an article of faith that people on "welfare" are lazy good-for-nothings who prefer to sit on the sofa watching TV, eating steak, gawking at pornography and soaking up fabulous government benefits instead of hauling their able bodies to work. The facts behind poverty in Missouri belie this notion, but never mind! Why let facts get in the way when stereotypes are so much easier?

I'm having a hard time not being stereotypical myself.  The editors are right - it is so much easier to stereotype than it is trying to understand statements like Robertson's gleeful expression of pornographic violence against someone who does not believe as he does, or than trying to understand people like Brattin, the Republican legislator from Missouri, who boldly (if blindly) go there with their plans to improve the lot of those less fortunate.

I just don't get these people.

Tuesday's Number: $304,149

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 16 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $272,225. 
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $9,626. 
• And there were two health care related bankruptcies, totaling $41,550.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had three, totaling $31,978
• St Josephs had two, totaling $12,508
• SUNY Upstate had 11, totaling $256,962
• Community, part of Upstate, gets a ‘credit’ of $9,626 

There were two additional judgments, one for another hospital in the CNY region, and one for a medical practice in Florida, which make up the balance of $12,327.

I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Tuesday's Number: $369,972

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 21 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $391,556. 
• There were three satisfied judgments, for $21,584. 
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies. 

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had four, totaling $11,293
• St Josephs had two, totaling $35,838
• SUNY Upstate had 16, totaling $323,839
• Community, part of Upstate, gets a ‘credit’ of $6,596 

There was one judgment for a medical practice for $5,598, which makes up the balance.

This year, I’m subtracting the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v24)

The Republicans in the Senate took a bold step towards something  I don't even know how to describe, with their 'open letter' to Iran, which served more to embarrass them than it did anything else. I mean, when the foreign country calls you out as propagandists with a mistaken understanding of your own constitution, I think maybe your message failed to hit the mark, right?

And, of course, the most important thing the Republicans have to do, now that they've failed to override the President's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline and failed to drive a hard bargain on immigration, ending with full funding of the Department of Homeland Security -- the single most important thing they have to do is worry about Hillary Clinton's email.  

Hillary Clinton used one Blackberry instead of two, something that hundreds of thousands of businessmen and businesswomen do each and every day. It was completely legal, and she was not the first government official to do it. She will likely be the last. She and Bill had their own server, something that most people don't do but which also was not illegal.  

She emailed people on their government emails, with the understanding that the emails would be retained in accordance with policy. Also not illegal. She turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department, and asked them to make every stinking page of them public, which State has said they'll do. So what's she guilty of? 

Being Hillary Clinton. She could have saved every single email, every yoga routine and grocery list and sexy message to Bill and baby pictures of her grandchild and everything in between, and it would never be enough to satisfy people.  

Meanwhile, the State Department Inspector General announced today that an unrelated investigation identified that not all of the emails that should have been retained were in fact retained.  Not just emails that Hillary sent to people, mind you, but countless thousands, maybe millions, of emails were not retained. Computers did not work; people did not retain emails as they were supposed to or tried to thwart the process, and that (as we have seen in virtually every government agency that has any technology more advanced than an abacus), the US government "cannot handle the" technology. Not HHS, not IRS, not State -- they plain old can't handle it. 

That's got me wondering, on this Wednesday, what the heck is going on?  Has Congress not approved funding for any tech upgrades since Al Gore invented the Internet?

Congressional Republicans also, of course, have time for Benghazi. Not for any particular reason, other than because,  like Jello, there's always room for Benghazi. 

Not, mind you, South Korea, where the Ambassador was injured in a daylight knife attack, had 80 some odd stitches in his head and face, had surgery on his arm, and will need continued therapy because of the nerve damage to his arm.  Why? Well, because the attack had nothing to do with the Administration, and nothing to do with Hillary Clinton, and so the poor bloodied ambassador, well screw him, right?  He's still alive, and there doesn't appear to be any way to tie Barack Obama or anyone named Clinton to it. 

This new Republican Congress we have, which I swear is acting even worse, even more petulant, even more childish and ridiculous than they did when they were the minority, has convinced themselves that the majority of Americans wanted them in office. We know that only 37% of eligible voters bothered last fall, but that's just a number. 

When I'm at my most cynical, I refer to them as #TheLeadershipWeDeserve. When they're at their most self-important, they remind us we chose them to "lead us forward."  

I'm left wondering if their GPS is government-issued.

Winners Never Cheat

Am I the only one who was a little confused by the editorial in Sunday's Post-Standard about the NCAA's investigation of and penalties for SU's basketball program (and the football program, if anyone cares)?

The very much rambling column by the editorial board declared that

NCAA standards are so exhaustive, schools maintain whole staffs of people to monitor and enforce them. Some rules are picayune; others are simply inane. But rules are rules, and SU admitted it violated at least some of them. Not all violations are equally severe, however. 

OK -- so, lots of rules are petty, or trivial, or silly, but some are serious and meaningful too. Either way, they are the rules that NCAA members need to meet. SU has a compliance office staffed by people who are supposed to know what the rules are; they have an athletic director who should be familiar with compliance, having worked at one of those schools the editors highlighted as having received similar penalties; and, of course, they also have a basketball coach who has been through this before.

The editorial continued with this:

We question whether the punishment in this case fits the crime. (After all, no state or federal laws were broken).  

So that's our ethical threshold now - no state or federal laws broken, so we're OK?  The rules are petty and ridiculous, so why follow them? And there are too many of them, how can we possibly keep track?

Failing drug tests. Cheating on class work. Accepting 'extra benefits' including, it's alleged, players being paid for or given academic credit for doing very little work at a local YMCA. A school provost and the Athletic Director and others doing everything possible to secure eligibility for a player who clearly was not meant for college absent his ability to play defense. Violations going back to before SU's National Championship in 2003, which against all odds was left standing unscathed.

These are the things in the NCAA's report, many of which the university admits to, had self-reported, and had gone so far as to self-impose a post-season ban in a year that the team would have needed a miracle to secure tourney eligibility, but a ban none-the-less.

In addition to the 'no laws were broken' viewpoint, we have the "everyone's doing it" defense, such as it is.

I can only imagine friends who have kids who participate in athletics in school telling them it would be OK for them to cheat since everyone does it. What's the lesson there?  And why would a parent work hard raising their children to be honest players, honest students, when coaches and athletic directors are going to bend the rules?

Well, you try to hard with your kids, because winners don't cheat and cheaters don't win, or at least they're not supposed to, and if they get caught they get punished. Remember last year's Cinderella Little League team, Jackie Robinson West? Or the Skaneateles football team under Tim Green? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? What about Lance Armstrong, who cheated for years, denied it vigorously, even going so far as to create a special website to debunk the charges, only to finally come clean. Isn't that what's supposed to happen?

SU has indicated they will appeal, and Boeheim is clearly planning on it, based on his comments at the Hardwood Club dinner this past Sunday night. It will be interesting to see play out is the appeal process:

• Will either SU or Boeheim seek to have the more than 100 vacated wins restored? 
• Do they focus on the twelve scholarships that were taken away? 
• Do they try and ditch the probation, which didn't include any tournament bans but require the school to follow the rules, even the picayune ones? 
• Does SU offer Daryl Gross as a sacrificial lamb?
• And how long will it take for any decisions to be made?

Earlier this year, Jim Boeheim  famously pointed out that he doesn't give a shit whether people think he runs a clean program. 

I'm not a Boeheim 'hater'. I'm disappointed in him, and I hope that he'll take some time, as he prepares a plan to save his legacy, to rethink that comment he made back in February. To think about how it impacts his kids, all the rest of the kids in our local schools, and all of the parents and fans and alumni and community organizations that rely on the SU basketball team to help get them through the long, cold winter.  

Tuesday's Number: $242,283

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were ten new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, totaling $216,754.
• There were no satisfied judgments.
• And there were two health care related bankruptcies, for $25,529.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had six, totaling $125,640
• St Josephs had three, totaling $31,635
• SUNY Upstate had two, totaling $74,827
• Community, part of Upstate, had none

There was one judgment for a surgical practice, for $10,181, which makes up the balance.

This year, I’m subtracting the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

More Political Equality, Please.

In a recent post, I asked for More Term Limits, Please because I believe that we do not need 'politicians for life' but instead need to move to a place where public service focuses more on the service part and less on the living-a-life-paid-for-by-the-public part. 

This is not a Democrat or Republican thing with me: I'm equally opposed to entrenched Dems and Reps and Indies. For example, while some cheered the long service John Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who spent almost 60 years in Washington (and who was replaced by his wife), I cheered his retirement.

Term limits have very little chance of happening in most places; here in NY, for example, I think the process would be that the ones who would be directly impacted by the limits would need to pass the same bill in two consecutive legislative sessions, just so we could get the initiative on the ballot, and then the voters would need to approve the initiative, and then of course we'd need a couple of Commissions, Committees, Authorities and Boards pulled together in order to determine how term limits can be implemented, and then... well, you get the drift. Our chances are slim, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight for them.

In the meantime, we could also fight for some other changes (in addition to the ethics reforms put forth via sledgehammer by our Sonofa Governor Andrew Cuomo) that would introduce more equality and representation for New Yorkers across the board, which (I naively thought) is the point of having the Legislature in the first place. 

Here are five ideas that come to mind:

1. Offices of members of the Legislature should all be the same size, regardless of how long the politician has been in office or what leadership position person holds. If we can have open offices in business, where the CEO sits in the cube farm along with everyone else, why must we reward politicians with progressively bigger offices and better artwork for no real reason? 

The people our legislators represent are the same; I'm no different than a person in Buffalo or Rochester or Binghamton or Watertown or Orange County or Staten Island, I'm simply a New Yorker who is supposed to have representation in Albany. Maybe if our representatives were all treated equally, they might have an equal chance to represent us.

2. Publish a legislator scorecard.  If you pay attention to the newsletters you get from your legislators, you'd think they go to Albany, vote on one or two things, and then come home to have pictures taken with veterans, children and seniors. What the heck are they doing down there? Are they submitting legislation? Are they trying to, but being blocked by their own party leaders? Are they recording votes on things, participating in debates and so on? We have no idea what they're really doing, because they show and tell us only what they want to.  

The Assembly and the Senate should be required to publish a scorecard for each legislator, reflecting all votes that were offered up and how each member voted (no more voice votes); what legislation they attempted to put on the floor and what happened with it; what bills they co-sponsored, amendments they submitted, etc.

The information should be published monthly and delivered to all district constituents, posted unfiltered on each member's web page, and available on the Senate and Assembly webpages.  And, the costs associated with accumulating the information, publishing and mailing the scorecard should bet assessed to each legislator equally. 

3. Ban handouts of taxpayer dollars during the eight weeks leading up to an election. Remember Governor Cuomo traipsing up, down, and across the state holding press conferences announcing funds that he was handing out for economic development last year? Or my favorite, the property tax rebates which were approved in 2013 but not issued until the fall of 2014, when every single member of the legislature was up for reelection? That should be illegal.

I'm not saying that the state can't do business year round, that would be silly. Rather, politicians should not be allowed to swoop in on a community in the two months before the general election with suitcases full of cash and Publishers Clearing House-style prize checks, with full press coverage, and buy votes. It's wrong. We know it's wrong, the pols know it's wrong, and so do the reporters who cover these self-serving announcements.

When the money is appropriated, the schedule of when it will be distributed must accompany the announcement of the funding.  And, when the money is handed out, it must come with the a reminder that it's taxpayer dollars that were previously appropriated, not a gift bestowed upon us by someone running for office.

And if Albany must send an attention-grabbing person along with the money, well, that person cannot be an elected official, but should be a representative of the agency from which the funding flows.

4. Each legislative committee should have a permanent, not-partisan staff, which provides information equally to both parties. The size of the staff should be equal the number of legislators on each committee; the staff members should be employees of the State not of the Legislature, but the Leg should be charged for all of labor and benefits costs. Where possible, we should use SUNY or CUNY resources in the data gathering and analysis.

How does this help push the equality agenda? It removes partisanship from the research and investigation of issues that the Committees work on, and it removes the ability of the Leadership to influence what research gets done and presented to the Committee members. The party in the majority may have have more seats on the Committee, but all members will get the same unbiased, fairly gathered, equally shared information to use in their decision-making.

5. Hold Lobbyist Speed Dating events.  Each member of the Leg sits at their own table in a convention center or someplace equally public, under nice bright lights. Registered lobbyists have five minutes with each member to push their issue and when the bell rings, they move to the next table, whether that's a person they wanted to lobby or not. I'm sure they'll find some way to spend the five minutes.

To make this more fun, the members of the Assembly and the Senate will be seated in alphabetical order, and intermingled so a Republican Senator could be stuck in a row of Assembly Democrats, or vice versa. The lobbyists will also enter the room alphabetically, but go all the way to the, so lobbyist Mr. Abbott would start his speed rounds with Member Zambrowski.

On the chance that there are too many lobbyists -- OK,that was silly of me -- knowing there are more lobbyists than can fit into each session, the ones who don't make it into the room during the initial session will be first on the list for the next session.

The sessions should be open to the public, and the lobbyists who register to 'date' will be billed to cover the costs of the venue. The sessions should be rotated around the state, and all members of the Legislature would be required to attend each one. This will add an economic boost to all regions of the state, as we'll be able to fill unused dates in our floundering convention centers, maybe book some hotel rooms, that kind of thing.

After each session, a listing of the lobbyists who attended and the members they spoke with will be published on each Member's Scorecard and website, and also on the Assembly and Senate webpages. 

So there you have it: five changes that level the playing field for our elected officials and the people who lobby them, share wealth across the state, and provide real transparency for voters. They use our tax dollars wisely, tap into existing state resources on multiple levels, provide accountability, and heck, they might even cause more people to engage in the process.  

Now, I just need to find some willing partners to share this information with their friends, and their legislators.  Are you in?

Wondering, on Wednesday (v23)

For your consideration:

Idaho Republican Vito Barbieri wondered (out loud, actually) if a woman could swallow something and have it end up in her vagina. His question was predicated on an explanation by a doctor that a person could swallow a pill that had a little camera in it and that camera could take images of the person's colon and voila, those pictures can be uploaded and viewed by a doctor many miles away.  Alas, that won't work with gynecological exams, because the swallow bone is not connected to the vessel bone. Read about it here.

Nevada Republican Michele Fiore believes that cancer is a fungus that can be washed out of the body. It's as simple as putting in a pic line, flushing it with baking soda, and voila, the fungus/cancer will be gone.

Mississippi Republican Gene Alday doesn't want to put any more money into public education because, first of all, no schools in trouble financially, and because, well, because those lazy black folks are just sitting around collecting welfare and not working, and educating their children would be pointless.

West Virginia Republican Brian Kurcaba thinks rape is bad, which is good, but he thinks what is beautiful is a child that could come from a rape.

I'm left wondering, on this Wednesday, whether my befuddled head-scratching over this stuff will leave me bald. 

Tuesday's Number: $1,065,607

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 28 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $937,254.
• There were no satisfied judgments. 
• And there was one health care related bankruptcy, for $128,353.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week:

•  Crouse had four, totaling $21,610
• St Josephs had none
• SUNY Upstate had ten, totaling $178,824
• Community, part of Upstate, had none 

There was one other judgment, for $5,202 for a medical facilities, making up the balance.

This year, I’m subtracting the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Alphabet Soup: CPAC and ABC

The annual "let's vote for someone with the last name of Paul" straw poll has been taken at CPAC and - surprise - Rand Paul won!

Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson and The Other Bush rounded out the top five; some more prominent Republicans, including Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal, failed to garner much support; some of them got less than His Hairness, Donald Trump.

The CPAC poll is generally inconsequential, as indicated by the showing of the Paul family when push comes to shove.  Ron Paul won CPAC in 2010 and 2011, and Rand has won the last three, but you don't see them still standing when the fat lady sings.  CPAC voters trend young, with 47% of them between 18 - 25 years old.  The other findings from the poll?  Marijuana yes (41%); immigration no; reform should be at least 'encouragement' to leave if not outright deportation (64% combined), and on that issue, most believe that Congressional 'spending power' should be used to defund and derail the President's executive action.  As with the poll, no surprises there.

And there should be no surprise that CPAC was united in their disdain for Hilary Clinton, the presumptive Democrat nominee, The One For Whom All Others Will Wait (and likely Step Aside)

Ugh.  I'm sorry if my friends on the left will be unhappy with me, but I have got to get this off my chest:  I'm for ABC: Anybody But Clinton.

The Dems need to get out of their own way, and make room for someone who can run on their own record, someone who is not bringing with them a few airports full of baggage. Someone who can find a path forward, not backward.  We do not need a grandmother-in-chief, or at least, we don't need this particular grandmother in chief.

To quote Hillary herself, "what difference at this point does it make?" A lot. Democrats are already bearing the burden of having Hillary at the top of the heap, even undeclared. Her book deal, and her being flat broke, and Benghazi hearings, and her speeches, and on and on. That's all in the past, but the past is where the Clintons live, and where the Republicans are happy to go.

We've seem what passes for leadership in the Republican majority Congress; they can't even figure out how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is being held up because they're mad at President Obama for taking executive action on immigration. The Republicans, the party of shutting down the government, the party of threatening our security, the guys who claimed credit for the years-long improvement in the economy, because 'people were looking forward to them being in charge' -- seems their hubris knows no bounds.

Neither, however, does Hilary Clinton's. She sits, and watches, and toys around with reporters on making 'announcements' , and makes a bunch of well-compensated speeches here and there, and occupies media time and space and everyone else waits. And waits. And waits.

This ain't no way to run a railroad, Dems.

It's March.

Someone in the party needs to sit her down and let her know she has to make a move, and she has to do it now. She needs to announce her intention to get out of the way, or she needs to announce that she's running, so that other Democrats (maybe some of these, (but not the first)) can get moving towards the challenge of 2016.

Even if that challenge is taking on Hillary Clinton.