Commentary from Dave Durenberger

April 3 , 2008

HEALTH POLICY

WE ARE N0. 50
Usually Minnesotans don't brag about being 50th among the states. But when it's the number of us without health insurance we're pleased to be there. A new Minnesota Department of Health study shows 374,000, or 7.2%, of us were without insurance in 2007. The REAL news is that 200,464 of us are eligible for some form of government-subsidized health care but haven't signed up for it. That leaves only 173, 536 without insurance of whom 79,810 are above 300% of the federal poverty guidelines (meaning $51,510 income for a family of three). Mandates anyone?

LONE STAR EQUITY
Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the nation and among the lowest per capita rate of taxation. It has no income tax and Governor Rick Perry last month suspended the state's unemployment compensation tax which is required to match federal taxes on business to meet unemployment claims. The Governor says there is little unemployment in Texas and its job growth is twice the national average.

If you are conservative, you salute Texas for it's low/no tax policy. If you are liberal, you point to the problem we have as a nation in relying on state government to finance access to human services for all except through the job market. There is no demographic question but what jobs and economic growth, for-profit health care, retiree sales tax payers, and folks who can afford private schools and living without six months of snow and ice relish living in the south. The military bases have all been down south for a long time and the northern automobile and other large manufacturing jobs have adapted to this reality as well. Federal spending is disproportionately headed south rather than north to make low/no tax policies easier.

If you really care about insuring all kids or about universal coverage in health care or consumer choice in housing, health, education and public services you need to decide something right now. All states are not equal. But the Constitution and its Bill of Rights say all Americans are. A national income security policy, if we had one, would recognize the need to change our entitlement mentality and our entitlement programs. States are labs of change, but not of income security. Put the same rate of tax on income, sales, and property in two southern states like Texas and Mississippi, and you end up raising only half as much money for income security or public services in MS as you do in TX. Think about it. Before it's too late.

DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
There is an increasingly threadbare theory that your doctor always knows best. No longer true. More and more physicians acknowledge there is more to know than any professional can - even supplied with health info tech and some data. Leave it to some docs to overreach on the presumption. This is the case in the off-label use of prescription drugs. It is a sad case when the doctor involved in promoting wide-spread use of unapproved (by FDA) applications has a financial interest in the drug.

The latest case is Dr. W. Scott Harkonen, who was indicted by a San Francisco grand jury for falsely claiming the drug Actimmune substantially reduced the death rate for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which scars lungs. Harkonen is CEO of biomedical company Comentis, but is charged with fraud and marketing violations arising from his service as CEO of InterMune. In 2006 InterMune agreed to pay $37 million to settle the federal government's civil case on off-label marketing of Actimmune. The drug costs $50,000 a year.

SUSAN DENTZER TO LEAD HEALTH AFFAIRS
It did not take long for Project Hope and John Iglehart, the founding editor and 25-year leader of Health Affairs, to replace Jamie Robinson as editor-in-chief of the health policy world's go-to publication. Iglehart was much honored since announcing his retirement last year. Landing the UCal Berkeley professor Jamie Robinson as his replacement looked like a very smooth transition until a month ago when Project Hope announced Robinson wanted to return to Berkeley. In relatively quick time for the academically oriented health policy world, PH announced Susan Dentzer as its new editor-in-chief.

For those of us with one foot in the policy world and the other in health services research, this is an interesting and timely move which may have more significance as time goes on. Both Dentzer and the Jim Lehrer Newshour have a deserved reputation for relevance, timeliness, fairness, and accuracy in all their reporting. It goes beyond that modulated tone of public broadcast voices to the stories, the balanced views, and the insight that is pretty rare in television today. Some of what passes for foundation-sponsored health services research in academia today is not as relevant to the needs of change agents in the public policy realm as it should/could be. Dentzer has a deserved reputation of knowing the difference and not trading the foundation of research and reputation in her stories to meet headline demands.

SCOTT WALLACE, a Chicago executive who answered President Bush's challenge to lead efforts to shape national HIT interoperability policy, is headed elsewhere after five years as President and CEO of The National Alliance for Health Information Technology. Many of us came to know Scott as a key part of a mind-boggling effort to introduce information technology to the maze which is the basically dysfunctional U.S. health care system.

His proudest moments must have been bringing the mainstreaming of health information technology to the rebuilding of the New Orleans healthcare system after Katrina. One of the few real success stories in the wake of Katrina or the wake of Bush's efforts at HIT for all. He sums it up like this: "The constraints of a single-issue association excluded me from working toward a transformed healthcare system in which the competitive market functions appropriately and market participants succeed by creating value for healthcare consumers."

DAVID J. BRAILLER MD, PhD, the Chairman of Health Evolution Partners in San Francisco, announced today HEP has launched the Health Evolution Partners Innovation Network (HEPIN) with $200 million to support new ways to organize, deliver, and finance healthcare. Its leader will be Roy Ziegler an entrepreneur, investor and med tech director. Advisors will be former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona, former Kaiser Permanente CEO David Lawrence, Dr. Arnold Milstein of Mercer, PBGH and other value-innovation organizations, and Dr. Molly Coye, the CEO of The Health Technology Center. All in the San Francisco Bay area.

OTHER NEWS
Harvey Picker died March 22nd at his home in Camden, ME. If there is a father of patient-centered health and medical care it is he. An expert on X-Ray technology because he inherited his father's Picker X-Ray Company. Harvey ran it until 1971 when he became Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. It was sold to GE Ltd. of England in 1981. After watching his wife suffer through medical treatment in 1986 he founded the Picker Institute which, in several countries, surveys patients on their hospital experiences and sponsors research on centering medical treatment on patients.

JOHN TOUSSAINT M.D. is the 52-year old CEO of ThedaCare Health System in Appleton, WI. He is best known as the inspiration for and leader of the Wisconsin Quality Collaborative which focuses a majority of Wisconsin physicians on providing purchasers of health and medical services in the Badger state with transparent information with which to judge value of the care provided. He will soon step down to head a ThedaCare Center for Creating Value in Healthcare which claims it can and will make a difference in national physician performance by providing physician leaders with tools they need for communicating to patients the value of physician improvement.

WHY NOT TELEMEDICINE
A physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles accurately diagnosed an ill child in Guam via live video at a telemedicine conference early. But only after Guam's lieutenant governor, a medical doctor, intervened to keep Guam's Board of Medical Licensure from enforcing a law that prevents off-shore doctors not licensed in Guam from diagnosing patients. In a world of increasingly specialized care it's ridiculous to force Guam residents to fly to Los Angeles if the specialty expertise can come to them. This is but one of thousands of barriers constructed by the medical professions in every state to protect themselves from competition and market entry. Adding billions to the costs of medical care diagnosis and delivery every year.

RETAIL CLINICS
Walgreen's - the drug store chain - intends to compete head-to-head with CVS in the broadened retail health care space. It will also expand into the rapidly growing health management business. Meanwhile, it agrees to pay $37 million to settle fraud claims that it mislead payers for prescription drugs.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY, FUNERAL UNITS TO BE SPLIT
That's a scary headline if you're in the device business as Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. is. So it is renaming its device business Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. while it deals with CMS claims against it for durable medical equipment payments dating to 1999.

DINNER TIME DRUG MARKETING
"For certain patients the benefits of Celebrex outweighs the risks." Gee whiz that's good. Which patients? Same commercial reminds us quickly that one of the "risks" for this famous drug is DEATH.

CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOCIATION strikes eight Sutter Health Hospitals in the San Francisco area for ten days in mid-March. Nurses union reps say it is patient issues for which they have been contracting for nearly a year. At $140,000 a year with generous health benefits and vacation time, the nurses claim not to be debating compensation.

NATIONAL SCENE

WASHINGTON D.C. JOINS THE MAJOR LEAGUES of baseball stadia with the Sunday night opening of the city's $611 million, 41,888 seat stadium paid entirely by D.C. taxpayers. The site on the Anacostia River was in a part of town few persons without illegitimate business to do would venture three years ago. 18,000 people bought season tickets, but as yet there are only 1,325 cars in elevated lots and not yet enough surface parking that isn't slated for other purposes.

Washington DC is both the richest and the poorest "state" (it wants to be our 51st) in America. It has the largest per capita income of any state and the highest number of residents living below the poverty line. Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his first Mass as Pope in America at the National's stadium in mid April. I recall Pope John Paul's visit to the White House in early 1979 - my first year in D.C. - and his Mass the next day on the Mall.

FROGS AND THE BOILING WATER
I have known Senator and Attorney General John Ashcroft since he was a piano-playing Governor of Missouri in the early 1990s. Knowing him as well as I do, I would trust him to be scrupulously honest with the public trust of elected/appointed office or the $28 million contract he received from a former Justice Department employee of his to administer the settlement funds in a fraud claim against one of the nation's largest orthopedic device manufacturers. However, I believe the contract should have gone to a firm without the apparent conflict of interest John Ashcroft has because of his service as Attorney General with jurisdiction over cases like this.

Every doctor and every medical school dean or v-p who takes money from medical device or prescription drug manufacturers will tell you his/her medical judgment cannot be influenced by gifts or especially by payment for services. If the gift/service payment were a one-time deal the public might agree. But when the gifts and other payments become routine and the recipient cannot live without them, it becomes an apparent - and often real - conflict of interest and a serious ethical lapse in professional judgment.

In the case of former public officials, folks like John Ashcroft claim they should not have to pay the price of being excluded from receiving public funds (which these payments become as soon as they are a payment in forbearance of litigation and liability). Wrong. Some of us have learned the hard way to define ethics in public trust (Senators or medical doctors) by the same appearance standard that exists between the public and those to whom they must delegate judgment because public/patient cannot ever be as informed as they need be. It is our professional obligation to forego personal financial rewards where they appear to influence our judgment whether the influence is real or not.

CLOSING THE BARN DOOR
The Secretary of the Treasury has come up with a set of recommendations to apply more rigorous oversight on the financial services industry in the future than this administration was able or willing to apply in the last seven years. All of this sounds good unless you are a Republican ideologue who believes that markets are designed to be free and unfettered by regulation. There is a rich tradition, with its roots in Republican executives like Teddy Roosevelt, that markets need rules and that government needs both oversight and regulatory authority to enforce the rules by which many are able to use the marketplace for their enrichment and for public benefit.

This would be a good time for the health insurance industry to consider the role that markets could/should play in providing financial security to as many of us as possible who need protection from the rising costs of medical care. The role of government in setting rules that apply equally to all, that protect consumers from the unscrupulous, and investors from the dishonest or incompetent. The history of health insurance in the U.S. is that it over-relies on state regulation, national subsidies, poorly informed oversight, and incidental and reactive regulation. Private health insurance seems not to want to do business in a free market without large public subsidies that come from social insurance (Medicare), public assistance (Medicaid), and income tax policy that favors large employer subsidies for the provision of health plan services.

THE PIG PATROL
While the New York Federal Reserve was busy steering Bear Stearns into J.P. Morgan in order to save the stock market from itself, the folks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis were doing a big job on Congressional "earmarks." In as fair and complete a job as anyone outside academia has ever done on the subject, editor Ron Wirtz and senior writer Doug Clement lead us through the politics and the economics of Congressional "pork barrel" with easy to understand charts and graphs and suggestions for reform. Easily one of the better reads this year for students of the national legislature. (Fedgazette Vol. 20 No. 2)

ROBERT BYRD (D-WV) is the longest serving Senator in the history of the institution. He is anxious to remain as long as able and is a candidate for re-election in a state which has benefited greatly from his many years of service as chairman or ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, he has been absent from the Senate for a month after suffering a back injury from a fall in his home which put him in Walter Reed Army Hospital three days.

A week later he returned from convalescence at home with a urinary tract infection and now is suffering from reaction to antibiotics. Democratic elders who might succeed Byrd like Dan Inouye of Hawaii and Patrick Leahy of Vermont are pretending they've no interest in seeing Byrd anywhere but in the chair.

TWO DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMEN take office this month. Bill Foster replaced GOP Speaker Denny Hastert from Illinois and Andre Carson replaces his own grandmother who died in office from Indiana.

CAPITOL EVACUATED when a small airplane flew over the capitol and was directed to land in Leesburg, VA.

FORMER SENATE LEADER TOM DASCHLE (D-SD) said recently that any elected official west of the Mississippi River will unequivocally say they want Barack Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket. Washington soothsayers claim that Dems in most GOP "red states", which includes much of the south, are quickly lining up with Obama. 20-point Obama wins in South Carolina and Mississippi are persuasive.

MAYFLOWER HOTEL says the first to capitalize on the notoriety of its room 871 (Gov. Eliot Spitzer) was McClatchey Newspapers whose DC reporters met there last week for "drinks and snide commentary."

LEGACY TIME II
While George Bush's naturally sunny disposition and his admit-no-mistakes predisposition give us little to cheer other than for the November election, his almost forgotten mentor Dick Cheney is using the financial debacle in this country as an excuse to do a tour of middle east oil states and Israel where Halliburton, his former company, has already established itself as an important and indestructible corporate presence.

CALIFORNIA IS JUST THAT
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped his Democratic brother-in-law Bobby Shriver, and his Republican acting buddy Clint Eastwood from California's Parks and Recreation Commission. Originally appointed by Gov Gray Davis, they were both re-appointed by Arnold in his first term. Eastwood was serving as the commission's chair when their terms expired. Most parks advocates believe Clint and Bobby lost when they opposed the governor's efforts to build a new state toll road from San Diego to Orange County through San Onofre Beach State Park. Says Eastwood, "It's not a fun time in Sacramento with all the budget issues. It was more fun with the girly-man thing."

MARK YUDOF is the unanimous choice to head the University of California system and will be appointed Thursday. After a distinguished career as Law Dean and Provost at Texas, and an unusually successful career by local standards as President of the University of Minnesota from 1997-2002, Yudof returned to head the University of Texas system. Known as a bright, visionary and highly talented business manager, Yudof, at age 63, will undoubtedly cap his career in CA at a salary that will dwarf his predecessor's. No less capable than Mark is his wife Judy who, among other achievements, has been international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

CBS NEWS BOB SCHIEFFER has hosted the Sunday morning Face the Nation program since 1982. At age 71 he recently announced he will put off his retirement for an undetermined amount of time after the next President takes office. Much to the relief of those of us who like our Washington political analysis the old-fashioned way - like a grandfather reporting on his family.

TWISTED SISTER guitarist Jay Jay French and singer Paulie Z of the band Z02 are re-recording the heavy metal band's anthem "I Wanna Rock" into "I Want Barack." French says he's doing it as Jay Jay French and Friends since the TS have split. "Obama has given sincere hope to people who have been out of the (political) arena for years."

POLITICS

COLEMAN vs. FRANKEN - NOT YOUR TYPICAL ELECTION
MN Republican Senator, and former Democratic mayor of St. Paul, Norm Coleman officially launched his campaign for re-election last week. His likely endorsed DFL challenger will be Al Franken who also launched his first race for public office. What's not to like about this race? Coleman won office in November 2002 after incumbent Paul Wellstone died in an airplane crash, a memorial service went politically ballistic on national TV, and former Vice President Mondale stepped in a week before the election to lose his first campaign ever.

Coleman was President Bush's hand-picked candidate after sending the Veep Cheney to tell Coleman and Tim Pawlenty who were running for Governor and Senate, to switch places. Coleman owes Bush a lot and became a dependable Republican vote in the Senate except on matters that appealed to the "Mayor" in Coleman - constituent service.

"I am running on my record, because unlike my likely opponent, I have one. As your Senator I've tried to be ‘Minnesota's mayor in Washington' putting the emphasis on serving your needs," said Coleman on March 27th. On the high profile issues in this administration - all the war, war-funding and security votes, taxes, judicial appointments, Medicare Modernization - Norm is stuck with the Bush record. In a Blue State and in what looks like a "Blue Election" this is tougher than running against Wellstone and Mondale. But Norm knows his record, he knows politics, he knows his opponent, and he knows the state. Ciresi worried him, but Franken can be beaten.

I don't doubt that. Al Franken is known to most people as a part of the old Saturday Night Live comedy routine. Then it's the launch of left-wing Air America. If you haven't met him, Franken seems funny, crude, and angry. If you have, there's a lot more to Al. However, in an election campaign you meet people 30 seconds at a time on TV and every positive message has two negatives - one from your opponent and one from you against your opponent. In five years of telling us he wanted to avenge Paul Wellstone by running against Norm, Al Franken hasn't made a positive impression on independents. Nor has he seemed capable of taking advantage of Coleman's comments, his record, or his party loyalty.

Senator Coleman is Brooklyn-born and raised in the Jewish faith. Franken was born and raised in St. Louis Park, MN and he too is a practicing Jew in a state which, according to historians and our first MN Jewish Senator, Rudy Boschwitz, demonstrated as much or more anti-semitism in years gone by as any other. Fund-raising for this campaign will not be a problem. The candidates between them have already raised $17 million as of Dec. 31, 2007 and may well double that by November. It is a key race for Republicans to win a filibuster-preserving 41 seats in the Senate.

Norm is also benefiting from the decline in newspapers as a source of news and the need of Metro MN newspapers for advertising revenue. In the "not so long ago" old days of MN politics, the Minneapolis Tribune, with its dominant statewide circulation was clearly left of center. It was hard on Republicans and the community's institutionally powerful, including our business community. Their role of journalistic interpreter of what really is "news" influenced all other media.

Not so today. They recruit adjunct writers across the political and ideological spectrum, they are desperate for business advertising, they dropped their payroll and most of their really good reporters (who are over at MinnPost), and they are absolutely no help to Al Franken as he tries to figure out Coleman's vulnerabilities. So, Al, the internet is yours if only you had the raw meat of insight that comes with understanding exactly what opportunities the incumbent has missed to "just like Minnesota." One vote (like ANWR) does not a fighter for MN enviro causes make. But Al hasn't shown any sign of getting it, probably because he hasn't experienced it.

Working for Franken are the national polls showing the public disapproval of Congress as low as ever and, more importantly, only one-third of likely voters approve of the work their incumbent member is doing and 55% favor a new person. More people "strongly favor a new person" than favor re-electing the incumbent.

CLINTON FIGHTS ON...AND ON
It may be difficult for Senator Clinton to believe that the national Democratic Party is changing. The party that fought with itself to define civil rights as national policy after the party of Lincoln had dropped the cause. The party that invented affirmative action and quotas. The party that invented political sub-caucuses by race, gender, and sexual preference. The party of Hubert Humphrey and Paul Wellstone is changing tactics and leadership. Slowly but surely. The Obama speech at the 2004 national Democratic convention was a signal and the 2006 election a sign. Senator Obama's campaign is all the evidence one needs.

Hillary's campaign is increasingly premised, as is her adult life, on breaking "the glass ceiling." A woman, any woman. A black, any black. The office of President of the United States is NOT an affirmative action job. It must be earned. A generation unborn when the old Democratic agenda worked is saying so with voices and contributions. An increasing number of Democratic Party leaders are deciding that Barack Obama has a better chance of earning both the leadership of their party and the Presidency. An increasing number of her U.S. Senate colleagues, including Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar this week, the first of the women in the Senate to do so, are endorsing Obama. Makes Amy in just two years the go-to DFLer in Minnesota.

PEGGY NOONAN DOES GAIL SHEEHY
For those who cherish the Ronald Reagan insight into the 21st century performance of his GOP foot soldiers (McCain et al), and his Democratic admirer (Obama), Peggy provides a regular Saturday psychoanalysis with help from the Wall Street Journal. For example on March 17 she wrote of Senator John McCain:

"Mr. McCain, in public, does not dig down to the meaning of things, to why he stands where he stands, to what understanding of life drives his political decisions. But voters hunger for coherence, for a philosophical thread that holds all the positions together…In the most successful political careers there is a purpose, a guiding philosophy. Not an ideology—ideology is something imposed from above, something abstract dreamed up by an intellectual. Philosophy isn't imposed from above, it bubbles up from the ground, from life. And its expression is missing with Mr. McCain."

MCCAIN has higher approval (82% in an American Viewpoint poll) among Republicans than Obama (78%) has among Democrats and he has no problem with conservatives. That may explain why, with the Dem contest hot, McCain runs neck and neck with both Obama and Clinton.

PROVING CORPORATE MONEY KNOWS NO PARTY LOYALTY, the House Ways and Means Committee chair Charlie Rangel of New York is setting fund-raising records that not even party leaders have achieved. Rangel has received over $5 million (for a two year campaign which has always resulted in big wins) of which $1.6 million comes from business interests, more than his GOP predecessor Bill Thomas had ever raised.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has $34 million on hand and the GOP counterpart less than $3 million. New York Democrat Senator Chuck Shumer is having so much fun as Senate campaign chair he will likely ask for an unprecedented second term at the job. Latest coup -- getting former Kansas Congressman and Governor candidate Jim Slattery to run again the venerable Kansas Senator Pat Roberts in November, making this a really surprising race.

NEWS FROM LAKE WOBEGON

JON HASSLER became a literary legend of small-town Minnesota before he died just short of his 75th birthday on March 17. Jon battled a Parkinson disease called progressive supranuclear palsy for 15 years. Jon graduated with me from St. John's University in Collegeville and taught school in north central MN small towns until he began writing the first of his 15 plus novels, many short stories, and plays at age 37. Those small towns gave imaginative birth to most of his novels like Staggerford.

On the day in March of 1993 that I was on the phone arranging my first meeting with the new President's wife, Hillary Clinton, I discovered she had found - and read - a Hassler novel in a long lay-over in Cincinnati Airport, bought up all the rest of his and couldn't wait for the next. The next was Dear James and it was an occasion for me to take Jon to meet Hillary at her White House office. I sat in awe for 45 minutes as I listened to a truly appreciative reader describe all his characters to a much surprised and complimented author. Gretchen says on the day Jon left for the hospital where he died, he put the finishing touches on his last novel, which hopefully will be published soon.

MINNESOTA BUDGET PROBLEMS
Our state budget, like many, is nearly a billion dollars short of current spending. When that happens a Republican Governor like ours recommends spending reductions not tax increases. That means reducing growth in spending on low income support programs like long-term care and medical assistance. Besides the people involved, it has substantial impact on hospitals serving disproportionately large numbers of the poor. For example. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of MN are in pediatric specialty services and 37% of their revenue comes from Medicaid. Similarly, Hennepin County Medical Center and UMN-Fairview have larger percentages of under-paid public service requirements than the state hospital average of 10%. This in a state which has lowest uninsured population the country.

TEACHER LEAVES 41.8 MILLION TO LOONS
In case you're not from here, the loon is the Minnesota State Bird. Much revered. People buy loon music discs as souvenirs. Those of us raised on lakes can never get the early morning sound or sight out of our memories. And don't want to. Iva Weir was also raised in MN and died in Corvallis, OR in 2006, leaving her estate to the Nature Conservancy in Minnesota to conserve loon habitat.

ON LAKE WOBEGON THIS WEEK
St. John's University hockey coach John Harrington (241-142-31) announced that after 15 years, five MIAC titles and 5 NCAA tourney appearances, he is leaving to coach the Hockey Club Ambri-Piotta in the National A League in Switzerland. Harrington played on the U.S. Olympic teams of 1980 (Miracle on Ice) and 1984 and raised a son who stepped into his role as outstanding defenseman at the University of Minnesota Gophers as well.

DAN BEUTTNER, one of our native sons, whom I first met launching an around-the-world bicycle trip 20 plus years ago, is back in Lake Wobegon this week with his new book on living and aging right. The Blue Zone: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who Have Lived Longer. It captures folks in four parts of the world he has spent time with and translates that into easy lessons for healthy aging. Dan should know how. His steady girl is Cheryl Teigs.

ON THE DOWN SIDE
Souksangouane Phengsene is the Minneapolis drunk driver who killed Minnesota Timberwolves star Malik Sealy late one night in 2000 on the freeway. He was re-arrested in 2006 for another drunk driving offense and his sentence was suspended by District Court Judge Warren Sagstuen. He was arrested on yet another drunk driving offense at 2 am last Sunday. I have written a lot about Norway and about high health care costs. When do legislators and judges act to end this unnecessary tragedy?

UPCOMING EVENTS

On April 10th, the University of St. Thomas Health Care MBA will present a workshop on "Health Care Careers: How Business Education Helps". Participants in this interactive workshop will discuss the value of a business education and how it is viewed within their organizations. This session will focus on health care careers and opportunities for physicians, executives, managers, and professionals in all areas of health care. All are welcome to attend this free event. Visit the event website for more information and to reserve your seat.

A conference on "Equity in Mental Health: Connecting with Underserved Communities" will be held on Friday, April 11, 2008 at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. It is sponsored by the St. Thomas M.A. in Public Policy program and is the second of a series of conferences designed to bring together professionals, consumers, policy makers and concerned citizens with the intent on improving mental health for all. Visit the St. Thomas website for more information and to register online.

Join MN Community Measurement at the 2008 Measurement Forum, "Connecting the Dots: Does Reporting for Results Matter?" It takes place April 16-17, 2008. Visit MNCM's website to register and learn more about the 2008 program.

QUOTABLES

Q: How else has Congress changed since you were there?
Charlie Wilson: There are not as many free spirits as there used to be - in fact there aren't any [laughing]. Everybody's all buttoned up. It's a different place; everybody takes themselves way more seriously now than we did, certainly than I did. Everybody's scared of his shadow; they're petrified that they'll be criticized. I think they consider a bad story in the newspaper worse than death itself. Back in those days, as long as you were up front and weren't hypocritical, things seemed to work out OK for you. I never pretended to be something I wasn't.
- Interview with former Congressman Charlie Wilson, New York Times Magazine

Q: Do you feel bitter about your service for the Bush administration?
Paul O'Neill: No. I'm thankful I got fired when I did, so that I didn't have to be associated with what they subsequently did.
-Interview with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, New York Times Magazine

"Conservatism and Capitalism bring out the best in people."
-Sean Hannity, The Sean Hannity Show, March 12th

"Democrats always make a mistake by nominating people who know everything on earth there is to know about public policy. I introduced both Al Gore and John Kerry at their rallies. They know all the policies, but people didn't connect with them. You don't get elected President if people don't like you."
-Senator John (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV) in introducing colleague and candidate Barack Obama

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