Planned Parenthood to pay Texas $1.4 million to settle alleged fraud

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Women's health group Planned Parenthood has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.4 million to settle allegations of fraud in billing to a health program for the poor, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said on Wednesday.

But a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast strongly denied the allegations and said the group settled to avoid a lengthy battle with Texas.

The settlement is the latest in a series of confrontations between Planned Parenthood and the Republican-led state government of Texas.

It follows one week after Texas approved a new law that will force Texas clinics performing abortions to upgrade facilities to those of outpatient surgery centers, which could cost thousands of dollars for each clinic.

Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider operating 13 clinics in Texas which perform abortions, staunchly opposed the new law and has threatened to sue the state.

Texas had previously banned Planned Parenthood facilities in Texas from participating in a state health program for poor women which funds care such as annual exams, cancer screenings and birth control. Planned Parenthood sued the state but ultimately lost in court.

Abbott, a Republican who is running for Texas governor, said on Wednesday that a whistleblower accused Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast of improperly billing Texas for products and services which were never rendered, not medically necessary, or were not covered by Medicaid, the government health program for the poor.

Medicaid is mostly funded by the federal government but administered by the states.

Investigators determined that Planned Parenthood "falsified material information in patients' medical records" in order to support fraudulent reimbursement claims, Abbott said.

Planned Parenthood said the allegations are without merit and the group was settling "as a practical matter."

"Continuing this litigation in the hostile environment for women's health would have ensured a lengthy and costly process that would have distracted our energies and required us to share the private medical information of thousands of women," spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla said in a statement.

"We are ending this lawsuit in order to devote all of our time and energy to delivering high quality affordable health care."

Abbott, a strong opponent of abortion, is campaigning to succeed longtime Republican Governor Rick Perry in 2014.

Funding for women's health programs has been repeatedly cut by majority Republicans in the Legislature, and last week, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast announced the closing of three clinics in Texas, one of which performs abortions.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-pay-texas-1-4-million-settle-210025868.html

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Philly mayor: Federal cuts hurt local governments

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Automatic federal spending cuts that kicked in March 1 have seriously hurt city and local governments, hampering their ability to deliver essential services to citizens, Mayor Michael Nutter said Tuesday in a blunt message to Washington.

The federal sequester has transferred costs onto local governments, said Nutter, the immediate past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In Philadelphia, he said, deep cuts to a program that helps homeowners avert foreclosure will potentially result in more blight, while the school district is facing an existential budget crisis that has forced it to lay off 3,800 employees and eliminate sports, music, art and all after-school programs.

"This is not a sustainable model for cities. The federal government cannot balance its budget on the backs of cities and local governments," Nutter said.

The second-term Democrat spoke at a meeting of the State Budget Crisis Task Force at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The event was designed to bring attention to the eroding financial condition of state governments, but Nutter spoke on behalf of cities.

"We've already been to the fiscal cliff. We've made our cuts. We've cut back on services and we've raised people's taxes at the same time," Nutter said. "We're now trying to come back. Please don't stand in the way."

A top Treasury Department official said the federal government, after running trillion-dollar deficits as it tried to stabilize financial markets and stimulate the economy, has to begin getting its own fiscal house in order.

Having sent more than $280 billion to state and local governments between 2009 and 2012, largely to be spent on education, infrastructure and health care, "we need to begin pulling back the federal safety net," said Mary John Miller, Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, who was taking part in a panel discussion.

"As we see unemployment coming down, as we see the housing market beginning to recover, as we see the economy growing ... we see that we need to now turn our attention to reducing our federal deficits," she said.

Former President Bill Clinton was due to give the keynote address later Tuesday.

The nonpartisan State Budget Crisis Task Force ? led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch ? issued a report last year that said U.S. states are grappling with long-term budget problems that threaten their ability to pay for basic services such as law enforcement, local schools and transportation. The group cites rising Medicaid and pension costs, reduced federal aid and eroding tax revenues as a few of the challenges facing the states.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/philly-mayor-federal-cuts-hurt-local-governments-144017849.html

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Germany investigates commander of Nazi-led unit

BERLIN (AP) ? German prosecutors said Monday that they opened a formal preliminary investigation of a Minnesota man who was a commander of a Nazi-led unit during World War II, to determine whether there is enough evidence to bring charges and seek his extradition.

The Associated Press found that 94-year-old Michael Karkoc entered the U.S. in 1949 by lying to American authorities about his role in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, which is accused of torching villages and killing civilians in Poland. AP's evidence indicates that Karkoc was in the area of the massacres, although no records link him directly to atrocities.

Kurt Schrimm, the head of the special German prosecutors' office responsible for investigating Nazi-era crimes, said prosecutors "have opened a preliminary investigation procedure to examine the matter (and) seek documentation." It was unclear how long their examination might take.

Schrimm's office is responsible for determining whether there is enough evidence against alleged Nazi war criminals for state prosecutors to proceed with a full investigation and possible charges. The only charges that can be brought in such cases are murder and accessory to murder, as all other offenses fall under the statute of limitations under German law.

Germany has taken the position that people involved in Nazi crimes must be prosecuted, no matter how old or infirm, as it did in the case of retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died last year at age 91 while appealing his conviction as a guard at the Sobibor death camp.

Poland's National Remembrance Institute, which investigates Nazi and Soviet crimes, has said prosecutors are reviewing files on Karkoc's unit for any evidence that would justify charges and an extradition request.

It says the files were gathered during separate investigations into the killings of civilians in the village of Chlaniow, in southeastern Poland, and into Nazi suppression of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against German occupation. The AP found documentation showing that Karkoc's unit was involved in both.

Karkoc told U.S. authorities in 1949 that he had performed no military service during World War II, according to records obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request

The U.S. Department of Justice has used lies in immigration papers to deport dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals. But the department had no comment on the German decision to investigate Karkoc when contacted Monday by AP in Washington.

Karkoc's son, Andriy Karkos, has said that his father "was never a Nazi," and pointed to the portion of the AP story that said records don't show Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes. He has said the family won't comment further until it has obtained its own documents and reviewed witnesses and sources.

A woman who answered the phone at Karkoc's Minneapolis home Monday refused to comment when a reporter from the AP made contact.

__

Associated Press correspondent Doug Glass contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germany-investigates-commander-nazi-led-unit-124902653.html

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Bonus Quote of the Day (Taegan Goddard's Political Wire)

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How Mi Voz mobilized 30,000 correspondents across Chile and ...

Photo: Courtesy of Mi Voz

A Chilean community news network is succeeding on two fronts where countless online media projects fail: mobilizing ?citizen journalists? and actually making the venture profitable.

Mi Voz is a network of 20 media outlets that boasts a combined force of 30,000 ?citizen correspondents? from the Peruvian border in the north to Patagonia in the south. The volunteer contributors submit original stories, which are then vetted by professional editors. Of the 20 outlets, 16 are local dailies and four are topical magazines.? Together they bring in a combined traffic of 2.5 million unique visitors per month. Not bad in a nation of 17 million.

?We wanted to create a space where we could create something different ? a community public forum that could last over the long term,? said Paula Rojo, one of the project?s founders.

Eight years since launching, Mi Voz is bringing in $2 million yearly and does not rely upon foundation or government support. Its diverse business model came together four years after launching and combines traditional advertising with community outreach and research studies. The company employs both regional and national advertising ? including government agencies and local businesses. ?Sales have increased yearly, along with traffic.

Rojo, a designer by profession, said the initial goal was not to create a business, but to tell the stories from regions outside of Santiago which are rarely heard in Chile. The news coverage that did exist was generally about scandals or crime. In response, the network launched in 2005, after the co-founder Jorge Dom?nguez observed how Korea?s Oh My News?was activating residents to tell their own stories.

When Rojo and Dominguez shared their plan for a citizen news outlet with national networks, the response was that there was no way it could succeed without crime, sex, and scandal. But Mi Voz persevered, proving that people were interested in other types of stories and that such an enterprise could be lucrative.

?We want to create a space where citizens, leaders, and officials can converse and discuss the collective future of the city,? Rojo said.

The staff has grown to more than 50 people, about eight of whom work exclusively on the business side. A local editor is based in each city. In addition to vetting stories and working on copy, editors are also responsible for mobilizing and training residents and sometimes help by providing reporters a workspace with Internet capability.

Rojo said they have never received a complaint about the lack of pay from their contributors: ?They feel owners of the media,? she said. ?They can have influence.?

Participants of a Mi Voz training. | Photo: Courtesy of Mi Voz

Part of Mi Voz?s philosophy is to not limit who is involved. They include submissions from public officials, representatives of community organizations, and even businesses right alongside reports from more objective ?citizen correspondents.? In an area where mining is controversial, for example, both the mining companies and residents opposed to the mining can post. The editor tries to facilitate discussion, however, and make sure that one voice does not dominate. ?We are interested in the conversation, the discussion,? Rojo said.

In the future, Rojo said, that online public forum may expand. She would not reveal where, but she said Mi Voz is now exploring ways to expand its forum for community correspondents and profitable business to other nations in Latin America.

Mi Voz is just one of many new journalism initiatives springing up across Latin America. In April, 14 initiatives from across South America and Spain participated in the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas Ibero-American Colloquium on Digital Journalism.

Here are some of the other projects worth following:

Animal Politico
In three years, the Mexican online political site Animal Politico ? think part Politico, part Buzz Feed ? has grown to have the largest social media presence in Mexico, claiming more than 375,000 Twitter followers and 469,000 Facebook likes.

A P?blica?
A P?blica is a women-run investigative network based in Brazil. Similar to Center for Investigative Reporting or ProPublica, A P?blica makes an effort to partner with publications on stories to hit a larger audience. CIPER Chile ?and IDL-Reporteros?in Peru are two similar investigative networks.

Anfibia and Plaza P?blica
Some Latin American universities are supporting new sites that do insight and investigative reporting. ?Anfibia, from the National San Mart?n University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was created in an attempt to translate academic research and language to the larger communities. Plaza P?blica, from Guatemala, is affiliated with the University Rafael Land?var in Guatemala City, which invited a ?group of journalists to create a digital media that supported the construction and defense of a solid democracy.?

Source: http://www.ojr.org/how-mi-voz-mobilized-30000-correspondents-across-chile-and-created-a-sustainable-business-model/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-mi-voz-mobilized-30000-correspondents-across-chile-and-created-a-sustainable-business-model

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AP PHOTOS: Slave descendants' community dwindling

SAPELO ISLAND, Ga. (AP) ? Sharron Grovner stands in the backyard of her home that faces this island's fecund saltwater marshes. The setting sun gives way to the stillness of evening, and the only sound one can hear are the ocean waves lapping against the shore.

These are the same shores where generations ago, Grovner's ancestors landed as slaves brought over to work a cotton plantation. They are the same shores where today the remaining descendants still fish for their dinner. They're the shores where ferries now embark to the mainland carrying hopes of employment while leaving behind a dwindling community.

Grovner is one of only 47 residents, most of them descendants of those West African slaves known as Geechee, who remain on Sapelo Island; their ancestors were brought to work the plantation of Thomas Spaulding in the early 1800s. Isolated over time to the Southeast's barrier islands, the Geechee of Georgia and Florida, also known as Gullah in the Carolinas, have retained their African traditions more than many other African American communities in the U.S.

Once freed, the ex-slaves were able to acquire land and created settlements on Sapelo Island, of which only the tiny 464-acre Hog Hammock community still exists. Residents say a sudden tax hike, lack of jobs, and development are endangering one of the last remaining Geechee/Gullah communities dotting the coast from Florida to North Carolina.

Here's a gallery of images from Sapelo Island.

_____

Follow AP photographers and photo editors on Twitter: http://apne.ws/15Oo6jo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-slave-descendants-community-dwindling-163638198.html

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PFT: NFL rookies get harsh truth at symposium

AP

Bills WR Marquise Goodman draws inspiration from his younger brother.

Part of the reason that LB Alonzo Highsmith Jr. signed with the Dolphins was to be close to his brother, a University of Miami senior also named Alonzo Highsmith Jr.

Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com points out the problems Patriots players drafted out of Florida in 2011 have experienced and wonders if Bill Belichick put too much stock in his friendship with Urban Meyer.

Jets assistant coaches Dennis Thurman and Tim McDonald have enjoyed a long friendship.

A look at the fight for roster spots and playing time in the Ravens backfield.

Will Bengals LB James Harrison outplay Jarvis Jones, his replacement on the Steelers roster, during the 2013 season?

What can the Browns do to cut down on QB Brandon Weeden getting passes knocked down at the line?

Age won?t be a problem for the Steelers defensive backs, according to the Steelers defensive backs.

Texans DE J.J. Watt got to know about helicopters during his visit to Afghanistan.

Previewing Year Two for Colts QB Andrew Luck.

Jaguars K Josh Scobee taught Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com about the technique needed to be a placekicker.

A video look at the progress made by Titans QB Jake Locker.

The Broncos are trying to keep expectations from going to anyone?s head.

An offseason with coach Andy Reid has left Chiefs QB Chase Daniel confident about the year to come.

Said Raiders RB Darren McFadden, ?Things are going very well with the offensive line. As far as the blitz pick up, the calls the offensive line is making. I feel like we?re meshing very well.?

CB Steve Williams could make an immediate impact in the Chargers secondary.

Ten things to know about Cowboys DB Will Allen.

Giants DT Marvin Austin has been playing the drums with children as part of a program called School of Rock.

A newly released biography tries to paint a picture of Eagles coach Chip Kelly.

Taking stock of the left defensive end spot for the Redskins.

Bears QB Jay Cutler is turning the clock back to the 80s for a fundraiser.

QB Thaddeus Lewis is confident about his chances of making the Lions.

Packers TE D.J. Williams likes to both work hard and play hard.

How much does it matter where on the depth chart the Vikings place DT Sharrif Floyd?

Osi Umenyiora thinks the younger Falcons defensive ends are developing quickly.

Undrafted rookie S Robert Lester hopes to make a mark with the Panthers.

Contrary to an internet report, Saints QB Drew Brees didn?t break his legs in a car accident.

Buccaneers rookies have spent time with local members of the military recently.

The Cardinals say they are reloading rather than rebuilding.

The Rams opened the NFL?s first Youth Training Academy.

Achilles injuries are piling up for the 49ers.

Looking back at general managers through the years for the Seahawks.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/22/rookie-symposium-message-most-of-you-will-be-gone-in-three-years/related/

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