Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler leaving for U.S. FDA
Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Dec 16, 2009 by Danielle Ulman
Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler announced his resignation Wednesday to become chief counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Tyler’s resignation will be effective Jan. 8, according to the insurance administration.
“I’ve very much enjoyed my time as insurance commissioner,” he said. “I certainly know that the work here is tremendously important and rewarding.”
He has served as commissioner since September 2007 and before that was Baltimore City solicitor for two years. Tyler spent 14 years in the Office of the Attorney General and later worked in private practice for Hogan & Hartson LLP.
He has worked on many state and federal administrative law cases, but Tyler said the new job will be a challenge because he has never worked on cases related to food or drugs.
Tyler said he will be leaving an insurance administration that is in “good shape.” The administration has put together a “modest” agenda for the legislative session beginning in Annapolis in January, mostly because of uncertainty related to federal health care reform.
“The big challenge for this department and more generally for the state in the next year and beyond is going to be preparing for implementation of health care reform, assuming, as I do, that health care reform is going to pass,” he said.
As insurance commissioner, Tyler ordered hearings on the nearly $18 million post-employment compensation package of William L. Jews, who was CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.
The insurance administration cut Jews’ pay in half, finding that he had steered CareFirst to abandon its mission with the attempted conversion from a nonprofit into a for-profit entity in order to sell it to California-based WellPoint Health Networks Inc.
Last month, a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge overturned that ruling, saying Tyler’s ruling was “unlawful.” Tyler said the Maryland Insurance Administration has appealed the ruling.
Tyler said he plans to work with Gov
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Wall St Sense Fundamental Review of Basic Materials, Services and Technology Sectors
Market Wire, December, 2009
Friday’s fears about Dubai were overblown;
manufacturing, home sales data reinforce economic recovery hopes. U.S.
market closed high on Tuesday. As new market updates
continue to fuel the current trading trend, Wall Street Sense
analysts have issued valuable analysis on the following companies: Tyco
International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE), BJ Services
Company (NYSE: BJS), Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: PSE),
Hercules Offshore Inc. (NASDAQ: HERO) and News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA). All
reports are available on Wall Street Sense ,
all you need to do is sign up now and continue reading.
http://www.wallstsense.com/index.php?id=78
A quick snapshot of today’s reports follows, for the full report sign up
today at Wall Street
Sense :
-- TYC is soaring on the charts with robust volumes
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Gary Steinman Named Editor-in-Chief of Future US, Inc.'s Playstation: The Official Magazine
Market Wire, December, 2009
Future US, the special-interest
media company, today announced it has appointed Gary Steinman as
Editor-in-Chief of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, the premiere source
of gaming news and information for PlayStation enthusiasts.
Steinman will take the reins beginning with the magazine’s February 2010
issue, which hits newsstands this December. As Editor-in-Chief, Steinman
will be charged with ensuring that the magazine continues to be the thought
leader for all things PlayStation. In his role, Steinman will evolve the
magazine to reach the broadest market while still addressing the desires of
the core gamer. This dual mission will be reflected in his first cover
choice, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s hotly anticipated Gran
Turismo 5.
“I’m thrilled to join PlayStation: The Official Magazine as
Editor-in-Chief,” said Steinman. “This is an exciting time for PlayStation,
and I’ve got a great opportunity to match that excitement in the magazine,
giving fans the most cutting-edge publication to support their enthusiasm.”
A journalism and gaming industry veteran, Steinman has held leadership
positions in a range of publications including PlayStation: The Official
Magazine, Newtype USA, TheStreet.com and PC Gamer. Most recently he was
Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer, where he managed all creative and editorial
aspects of the top-selling PC gaming magazine. Not only a journalist but
also an active social media buff, Steinman can be found at,
www.twitter.com/tinymanrages .
About Future
Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is
publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: FUTR). Founded in 1985
with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK and US creating over
180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are
passionate about their interests. We hold strong market positions in games,
music, technology, action sports, film, automotive and crafts. Our
biggest-selling magazines in the US include Official Xbox Magazine,
PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Nintendo Power, PC Gamer, Guitar World,
Maximum PC and Mac|Life, while our UK business publishes leading titles
such as T3, Total Film, Digital Camera, Fast Car and Classic Rock. Our web
sites include GamesRadar, BikeRadar, TechRadar, and MusicRadar
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NTI Selects Five9’s Market Leading On-Demand Call Center Software as Platform for Delivering Virtual Call Center Staffing Solutions for Work-at-Home Call Center Market
Business Wire, Dec 03, 2009
By selecting Five9, the fastest-growing on-demand call center
software vendor, NTI, the leading non-profit virtual call center
staffing firm, has created a just-in-time virtual call center
workforce solution that includes highly qualified work-at-home call
center agents and virtual call center technology packaged together in an
affordable, efficient, easy-to-deploy package specifically targeted at
call centers with seasonal or campaign-driven resource requirements.
PLEASANTON, Calif. — The National Telecommuting Institute, Inc. (NTI), a non-profit
organization that provides work-at-home jobs for Americans with physical
disabilities has begun offering call center customers an all-in-one
package based on NTI’s work-at-home call center agents and Five9′s
Virtual Call Center technology that provides an ideal solution for any
call center looking for a highly qualified outsourced work-at-home
expertise. Five9s on-demand call center software enables NTI to offer
an out-of-the box solution that requires no capital investment, no
lengthy implementation and provides rapid time-to-market to realize the
cost savings and additional revenue from deploying a highly qualified
work-at-home call center workforce.
Dr. M.J. Willard, Executive Director of NTI, stated We were already
using Five9′s platform internally for segments of our own virtual
workforce, which is dispersed across the United States. We had started
with Five9 for a special project and found that using on-demand call
center software was much easier and more cost-efficient compared to the
premise-based solutions we had been using in-house.
By basing their service on Five9, NTI can offer a flexible end-to-end
solution to customers from the outset and let them leverage highly
skilled call center expertise that NTI brings to the table without the
high costs and complexities otherwise involved in deploying a call
center software, said Jim Dvorkin, CTO of Five9. Unlike premise based
solutions, Five9 has been designed from the ground up to provide our
customers a virtual call center with geographical independence, while
providing seamless management and administration of this environment,
added Dvorkin.
Five9 pioneered the on-demand call center software market in 2001 and
with the largest engineering team in the on-demand call center industry
continues to enhance its call center product portfolio based on market
demand, customer and partner feedback, and a promise to offer companies
of all sizes access to sophisticated and innovative call center
solutions quickly, at a cost of ownership far lower than traditional
premise-based solutions
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Get the Real Truth
Cinergy Health Insurance is a provider of affordable and innovative health insurance in the country. Cinergy helps people maintain a better health by providing low cost health plans that most people can afford. Considering the growing economy for health insurance there are more businesses that fail to offer generous plans. There are individuals searching for health coverage that not only will take care of their health needs but will also offer savings. Cinergy offers these kinds of plans that you can rely on.
How does Cinergy Health Insurance work?
Cinergy Health plan is designed as an alternative for expensive medical plans
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Rules-Based Medicine and Psynova Neurotech Announce Companion Diagnostic Collaboration with Roche
PR Newswire, Dec 3, 2009
Utilizing Psynova’s schizophrenia biomarker portfolio and RBM’s DiscoveryMAP(TM) technology
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ — Rules-Based Medicine, Inc. (RBM) today announced that Psynova Neurotech Limited (Cambridge UK), a majority-owned subsidiary of RBM, has executed an exclusive research and licensing agreement with Roche to collaborate on the discovery, development, validation and commercialization of diagnostic immunoassays to aid the clinical development and commercial differentiation of novel treatments for schizophrenia.
Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will contract Psynova to identify candidate serum protein biomarkers that have utility in prognosis of disease progression and predicting or monitoring the efficacy and safety of a compound from Roche’s central nervous system (CNS) pipeline. Psynova will utilize its proprietary schizophrenia biomarker panels, its extensive CNS disease database and its access to RBM’s DiscoveryMAP(TM) technology to identify a specific biomarker signature that could serve as a companion diagnostic. Any resulting companion diagnostic will be developed either by Psynova and RBM (as the preferred developer for the companion diagnostic in partnership with Roche), or independently by Roche, which would result in milestone and royalty payments to Psynova.
“We are excited to enter into this partnership with Roche,” said Dr. Sabine Bahn, chief scientific officer and founder of Psynova. “This alliance is part of an ongoing strategy to leverage the value of our biomarker portfolio in both the development of novel diagnostic aids for physicians and the accelerated development and delivery of novel therapeutics for patients.”
About Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a complex, seriously debilitating psychiatric disorder affecting approximately 4 million people in the EU and 2.4 million people in the United States. Each year as many as 2 million new patients in the EU and 1.3 million in the United States are estimated to present with early signs of psychosis
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Cookies are monster risks
Risk & Insurance, Dec, 2009 by Roger Crombie
I write today with great urgency, to advise you of an insidious threat to the future of mankind: the chocolate biscuit. (A biscuit is what Americans call a cookie. They call scones biscuits. And they call scones, which are pronounced “skons,” skones, but I digress.)
It looks harmless enough, the chocolate biscuit: mostly sugar, wheat flour, some embedded buttons of chocolate, yeast and a sprinkling of chemicals. Lovely; pass the packet.
But … my sources deep within the casualty insurance sector inform me that the chocolate biscuit is in reality a deadly killer. In the United Kingdom, 400 people are treated in emergency and accident wings of hospitals for biscuit-related accidents every year. I’m not making this up.
Accidents involving the deadly “chocky bicky,” as Britons have referred to the little treats for thousands of years, include “somebody falling over while reaching for a biscuit,” the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has reported. Also, they said, a fair number of people each year “slip on a chocolate biscuit on the stairs.” And that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
I must ask, Exactly how stupid do 400 people a year have to be to end up in hospital for eating a cookie? What must the number be in the United States? Who leaves chocolate cookies or any foodstuffs for that matter, on the stairs? Jumping Jehosephat! I know that some less intelligent folk can’t eat a pretzel without almost dying but in fairness, the pretzel is a more complicated snack food.
Thousands of people a year worldwide succumb to the fatal nature of the chocky bicky and yet not a single insurance company that I have contacted sells cookie insurance. Not one. It’s an outrage
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PUTNAM COUNTY:
0 Comments | Charleston Gazette, The, Oct 19, 2009 | by Veronica Nett
WINFIELD – While loading groceries into the back of her car at the Wal-Mart in Hurricane, a woman who declined to give her name, couldn’t keep the frustration out of her voice when asked about the current job market.
Her husband, an employee with a Nitro company, lost his job last November – the day he came back to work from the Thanksgiving holiday. He was out of work for about four months before being rehired, but had to take a pay cut and lost his insurance.
“If I hadn’t had my job, I don’t know what we would have done,” she said.
While both are working now, her husband’s cut in pay and the rise in the price of food and gas have stretched the couple’s budget.
They’ve gone through their savings, and have stopped making payments to their IRA.
Since January, Putnam County’s unemployment rate has steadily risen, but compared to West Virginia’s 55 counties, it has fared better than average.
According to the most recent data from WorkForce West Virginia, Putnam County had an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent in August, the second lowest in the state behind Monongalia County, with 5 percent.
Putnam County officials say the county’s location, Interstate 64 and a diverse job market have kept the county’s unemployment rate at bay.
“We’ve been a lot better in terms of job loss and home loss,” County Commissioner Joe Haynes said. “We have been hit, but not as severely as other counties.”
Statewide, Putnam was one of seven counties that reported better- than-average unemployment rates in August, but its lead was by fractions of a percentage point.
Jefferson County reported an unemployment rate of 7 percent, Marion County, 7 percent; Gilmer, 7.2 percent; Kanawha, 7.2 percent; Mercer, 7.2 percent; and Monroe, 7.2 percent.
The statewide average for August was 8.6 percent. In September, it dropped half a percentage point to 8.1 percent.
“It’s different for each county,” said Ben Parker, director for research, information and analysis at Workforce West Virginia
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The lion and the lamb: learning about tolerance and compassion
Arts & Activities, Dec, 2009 by Judith C. Johnson
As the holidays approached this year, I was looking for something new and different from poinsettias, Christmas trees and snowy landscapes for my third-graders. (This lesson is adaptable to most any grade level.) This is a special class who is up for new ideas and art adventures. They had not yet used the changeable markers, which are great fun for pattern and design work.
I wanted to do a specific lesson using the seven elements of design for a holiday project. Our students began with the elements of design, color theory and drawing skills in the first grade. This class had used design for a heart project, so I knew I wanted a drawing lesson that incorporated design.
Visiting Crayola’s The Art of Childhood Gallery online a while back, I saw some images of animals close up that obviously had begun with the basic circle. I decided that starting with circles–one for a big lion and one for the smaller lamb–would be great for a lesson on world peace using the “Lion and the Lamb” concept from the Old Testament.
(It was interesting to note that I, like many, had the quote all wrong! The actual quote is” “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.”–Isaiah 11:6)
When my third-graders carne in for their weekly lesson, they found quotes on the board and a large image of Edward Hicks’ The Peaceable Kingdom, c. 1834, in the front of the room. A lively discussion ensued about the significance of a lion actually lying next to a lamb. Most everyone agreed that the lamb was likely to be dinner in the lion’s world.
We discussed tolerance and what it would mean if every one in the world showed tolerance and compassion. Some of the students brought up basic art-room conduct like never saying anything bad about someone else’s work, and helping classmates clean up without being asked to do so.
My students were provided with images of lions, lambs and foliage, and with jar tops in two sizes to lightly trace the biggest and most important shapes of the lion and lamb
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Coke habit for sad hubby
Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Dec 1, 2009
A LOVE-LORN husband risked jail when he started snorting cocaine to ‘self medicate’ his break-up depression.
David Geddes had seen his GP after the collapse of his marriage soon after Christmas.
But the 31-year-old self-employed builder decided he needed more than the prescription.
He began using cocaine to lift his mood, Newcastle Crown Court heard. But police found the pounds 1,000 drugs stash he had bought in bulk.
Geddes faced a charge of possessing the cocaine with intent to supply others -which carries an almost certain jail term.
But prosecutors accepted his guilty plea to the lesser offence of possession for his own use. Geddes, of Simonburn Gardens, North Shields, kept his freedom on a 12-month community order with supervision.
“The root of this offence comes from Mr Geddes and his wife going their separate ways some time after Christmas” said Andrew Rutter, defending.