Police: Missing California family may have disappeared intentionally

It now appears that a Southern California family left for Mexico. Police say that it looks like the McStay family left on their own to Mexico and they have been missing since February 4. There is no record of the family using their credit cards or cell phones. A sport utility vehicle belonging to the McStays was found abandoned on February 8 two blocks from the Mexican border.

This is a weird situation. I don’t understand why people would just leave the country and not tell anyone about it. They have family in the United States that are worried about them and they don’t know where they went. They should have at least told their relatives so that they could stop worrying and the authorities wouldn’t have to investigate what happened to them.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/30/california.missing.family/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

4 dead in D.C. shooting

Four people have died following a shooting Tuesday night in southern Washington D.C. A total of ten people were injured. Authorities said that there were multiple shooter that opened fire on a crowd Tuesday night. This lead to a police chase that resulted in an arrest of three men. They haven't given out any more information but they think that it might be gang related.

This incident is just not right. People just go around shooting other people. This is too bad for the innocent people that were shot and killed. They were just around the D.C. area and then for no reason they are shot and killed. If this happens to be gang related, people in the D.C. area are not going to be happy and they might have to change something about gangs in the D.C. area.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/31/dc.shootings/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Autopsy: SeaWorld trainer died from drowning, traumatic injuries

An autopsy released Wednesday showed that Dawn Brancheau died of drowning and tramatic injuries to her body. A month ago Dawn was attacked by a 12,000 pound killer whale. Dawn was working with Tilikum, a killer whale, that grabbed Dawn by her ponytail and drug her under the water. The autopsy showed that Dawn's spinal cord was severed, and she sustained fractures to her jawbone, ribs and to a cervical vertebra, in addition to the drowning.

This is a very unfortunate event. The animal trainers at zoos are very skilled and they are risking their lives every day. This incident doesn't happen all that often and it is too bad that this had to happen this time. After this people realize that the animals in the zoos look nice on the outside but they may be dangerous.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/31/florida.seaworld.autopsy/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Healthcare Blog

Issue #2 - Insuring Quality Care for Medicare Patients

Polcymakers are devising a plan to reduce Medicare expenditures while Medicare patients still have access to quality services. As it set up now, doctors get paid on the quantity of their work and not the quality. If a doctor misdiagnoses a patient they will get more Medicare reimbursments. In 2006 legislatures approved a "pay-for-performance" system that allows to pay doctors a 1.5 percent bonus for providing information about the type and quality of their services. Supporters of this legislation want Medicare to reward superior doctors and high-quality hospitals for their work.

I agree that the Medicare plan needs to change. A doctor shouldn't be given Medicare every time that they help a patient. If they get more reimbursements for seeing one patient more than once they may begin to not care about the patient and they may tell them the wrong information so that they will have to come back and then the doctor will get more reimbursments. I like the "pay-for-performance" plan as rewards the doctors that do their job well and tell their patients the right information even if it means less reimbursments.

GOP succeeds in forcing another House vote on health care

After a session that lasted into the early part of Thursday morning, Senate Republicans found two violations in the proposed package of changes in the new health care law. It now has to be sent back to the House of Representatives to have a another vote. Among the amendments to the bill is provision to prevent the bill's planned Medicare cuts from being used to finance other programs. Another amendment that they are working on is to eliminate new penalties being imposed on businesses whose workers use federally subsidized insurance.

This shows everyone that not everything in the Healthcare bill was good. There were violations in the Healthcare bill that people voted on and wanted it to become a law. Somebody found these violations and now it has to go back to House of Representatives to vote on it again. This is going to prolong the process of getting this Healthcare bill signed and it will take longer to make it into a law.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/25/health.care.main/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

Texas tour bus crash kills 2, injures 18

A tour bus that was going to Matamoros, Mexico tipped over near Campbellton, Texas. It flipped on its right side on the side of Interstate 37. The bus was carrying about forty people all between the ages of 40 and 60. Two people were killed and 18 were injured. Most of the injured are being transported to San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center and University Hospital to get treated for their injuries.

This incident just shows that anything can happen while driving. When peope ride on these tour buses they never think that this sort of thing is going to happen to them. Accidents happen and this could have happened to anyone. People need to be prepared and they have to realize that this incident could have happened to anyone.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/16/texas.bus.crash/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29